An operational review into the non-profit that ran a Vancouver SRO that burned down in a deadly fire was delayed again and again in the years before the disaster, a B.C. coroner’s inquest has heard.
The Winters Hotel went up in flames on April 11, 2022, killing tenants Mary Garlow and Dennis Guay, and displacing 140 others. It was leased and operated by Atira Property Management.
The inquest into the deaths has heard the aging heritage building at Abbott and Water streets had multiple fire safety infractions on its record. A review of Atira was due in 2018, but an associate-vice-president of BC Housing testified it was repeatedly put off.
By the time the fire broke out in April 2022, Atira had not undergone an operational review since 2015.
“My understanding is there was a request to delay, and then with COVID, it was further delayed,” testified Heidi Hartman of the Crown corporation’s supportive housing and homelessness branch.
Thursday is the final day of testimony in the three-week inquest, which has heard from victims’ families, fire officials, municipal staff, Atira employees, and others at a Burnaby courthouse. The inquest jury will not make a finding of fault, but establish the circumstances, facts and causes of the deaths, as well as make recommendations to prevent future tragedies.
To date, three witnesses have testified that on at least one occasion, they saw or were informed of a chained or blocked fire exit in the SRO. Others have stated not one fire drill took place there in their years of inspecting or managing the building.
Hartman testified that under BC Housing’s operating agreements with its largest housing provider, Atira was responsible for keeping the Winters Hotel in good repair, and conducting routine inspections and fire drills with staff.
She said only two Atira staff had completed fire training, and prompted by a lawyer, agreed such training should have been completed by the “intended audience.”
Nevertheless, the Winters Hotel was in a state of “disrepair,” according to Vancouver Fire Rescue Services (VFRS) Capt. Kris Zoppa, who visited after a fire broke out just three days before the fatal April 11 blaze. He testified last week that hoarded items blocked halls and doorways, he never heard its alarms go off, and he had a “bad feeling about that building.”
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On April 8, the Winters Hotel sprinklers extinguished a small fire in one of the units. While ordered to have them reset and other fire safety systems serviced right away, its manager testified she didn’t do that.
Gina Vanemberg told the inquest jury on Jan. 25 that because it was a Friday night, she didn’t think the only company she had approval to call would respond before Monday, so she held off. The company has since testified it does weekend service.
While Vanemberg did call Royal City Fire Supplies eventually, and had them scheduled to come on April 11, the fatal fire broke out before they arrived. The building’s sprinklers didn’t go off and there’s been conflicting evidence about whether the alarms did.
On Wednesday, a lawyer for Winters Residence Ltd. said that if the call to the company had been placed earlier, “it appears the April 11 fire wouldn’t have happened.” Grant Barton, managing director of Atira Property Management, agreed that call “would’ve changed the trajectory” of the disaster.
Several witnesses have agreed that Atira staff in the building needed more fire safety training. Vanemberg had none, and while she had received a “red book” of fire safety procedures, said no one reviewed it with her or confirmed she read it.
The Winters Hotel was given “unsatisfactory” inspection results from a fire captain in April and June of 2021, jurors heard.
The City of Vancouver’s head of property use inspection also testified he visited in October of 2021. The building had 18 life-safety violations, including missing smoke detectors, items hanging off the sprinkler lines and non-operational fire door closures, Mark McLellan said.
Family members of both Guay and Garlow have attended the inquest, at times, sitting in tears as witnesses testified.
The proceedings have raised many questions about what accommodations could have or should have been made for Guay, who had profound hearing loss. Jurors have heard no special measures were in place to alert him of an emergency evacuation or the fire watch that was issued for the building after the April 8 incident.
Vanemberg said she tried, through BC Housing, to get him a modification like a flashing light or vibrating bed, but those efforts fell flat at BC Housing. Asked about that, Hartman said such a request would have gone to the Crown corporation’s adviser as a funding request.
She said vulnerability assessments were done for both Guay and Garlow. Barton said Wednesday that Guay should have been placed in a different SRO with strobes to visually alert occupants to a fire.
Guay has been described as a music lover and storyteller. In a previous written statement to Global News, his family said he “always saw the good in others,” and was “sweet and kind in nature, and had a smile for everyone.”
Garlow has been described as a “street mom” to many in the Downtown Eastside community. Her niece, Misty Fredericks, told the jury on the first day of testimony that she was her son John’s “caregiver, always looking out for his wellbeing, ensuring he was safe and fed.”
John was also a tenant of the Winters Hotel. He jumped from the third storey to escape on April 11, shattering both his legs.
Guay and Garlow’s bodies were found 11 days after the fire in the wreckage of the demolished building.
Vanemberg has testified that as fire crews scrambled to evacuate the Winters Hotel, a list of tenants was forgotten in the building, against protocol, leaving her to find one elsewhere and provide it to BC Housing. Despite not being familiar with the tenants, she added, BC Housing was in charge of tenant roll call at a muster point.
A neighbouring business owner previously testified that she warned VFRS that people were still in the building and told the fire chief that she saw Garlow enter the building but not exit. She told jurors she was “really ignored.”
Fire officials have said unattended candles sparked the blaze.
The inquest is set to wrap up on Feb. 9.
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