Jurors are deliberating after nearly two weeks of witness testimony in an inquest into the deaths of two people in a fire at a downtown Vancouver SRO more than a year ago.
The Winters Hotel burned down on April 11, 2022, killing Mary Garlow, 63, and Dennis Guay, 53, and displacing 140 others. The heritage building at Abbott and Water streets also housed a women’s shelter and seven businesses.
The inquest began on Jan. 22 and has heard from the victims’ families, Vancouver fire officials, city staff, employees of Atira Property Management and BC Housing, and more.
Jurors will not make a finding of fault in the tragedy, but rather determine the facts and circumstances around the deaths, and make recommendations to prevent future tragedies.
Presiding Coroner John Knox told jurors they could only make recommendations based on evidence presented at the inquest, and not “blame or vindicate any person or agency.” Instead, he said they must reach two verdicts — one for each death, with accompanying recommendations.
Knox recounted evidence given by police and firefighters about how Garlow and Guay died as a result of an “unintended accident,” rather than homicide, suicide or natural causes.
The Winters Hotel was one of approximately 150 single-room-occupancy buildings housing some of Vancouver’s most vulnerable residents, who the jury heard are often on the verge of homelessness.
Jurors were told that a few recommendations targeting “broader failures of systems and standards” would be more effective than numerous recommendations addressing “unique circumstances.”
Vancouver Fire Rescue Services (VFRS) has found unattended candles were to blame for the April 11 fire. It was the second fire in under a week at the Winters Hotel.
On April 8, 2022, the SRO’s sprinklers extinguished a smaller fire. After that incident, VFRS issued a notice of violation to Atira to have the fire safety systems serviced and the sprinklers reset, and put the building under a fire watch.
The inquest has heard that servicing didn’t happen right away.
Building manager Gina Vanemberg testified that because April 8 was a Friday night, she didn’t think the only company she had approval to call would respond before Monday, so she held off. Royal City Fire Supplies testified afterward that it does provide weekend service.
While Vanemberg called the company eventually and had it scheduled to come on April 11, the fatal fire broke out before it arrived. The Winters Hotel sprinklers did not go off and there’s been conflicting evidence about whether the fire alarms did.
On Wednesday, a lawyer for Winters Residence Ltd. suggested 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, also testified 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 the building in October 2021. It 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 to get him a modification like a flashing light or vibrating bed, but those requests fell flat at BC Housing. Asked about that on Thursday, an associate vice-president at BC Housing said such a request would have gone to the Crown corporation’s adviser as a funding request.
Heidi Hartman of the supportive housing and homelessness branch testified vulnerability assessments were done for Guay and Garlow. Barton, Atira’s managing director, testified Guay should have been placed in a different SRO with strobes to visually alert occupants to a fire.
The inquest has also heard accounts of blocked or chained doors or fire exits, as well as hoarding in halls and doorways.
The Winters Hotel was in a state of “disrepair,” according to VFRS Capt. Kris Zoppa, who visited after the April 8 fire. He testified last week he never heard its alarms go off and had a “bad feeling about that building.”
Vanemberg has testified that as fire crews scrambled to evacuate the Winters Hotel, a list of tenants was forgotten inside, 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.”
Guay and Garlow’s bodies were found 11 days after the fire in the wreckage of the demolished building.
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 well-being, 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.
The jury told Knox late Friday that they needed more time to deliberate and he agreed to reconvene on Monday morning. The inquest is set to wrap up on Feb. 9.
— with files from The Canadian Press
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