A woman sustained minor burns to her hands while trying to get herself, and her belongings, safely out of a vehicle on fire in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside on Monday morning.
According to Vancouver Fire Rescue Services, calls came in about the fire at Main and Gore streets around 10 a.m. By the time crews arrived, the driver had already escaped.
“Crews got water on the fire quickly and contained it. Right now, we’re working on just final extinguishment, it’s just being stubborn from some additional fuel leaking from the vehicle,” Capt. Matthew Trudeau said Monday.
“We’re making sure the vehicle gets cooled down and the rest of the fire gets put out so it can be transported and get towed.”
The vehicle had a California license plate, but the nationality of the driver isn’t known, nor is the cause of the blaze.
Trudeau said crews had to act quickly to ensure the vehicle fire didn’t extend to a nearby building.
If you experience a vehicle fire, he added, it’s more important to get out quickly than it is to grab belongings.
“Vehicle fires are especially dangerous with the amount of heat, the energy, the fuel associated with it — it burns really rapidly, lots of energy again — you’ve got seconds to get out of your vehicle,” he told Global News.
“We’ve heard reports of some small explosions, could be associated with airbags that are just deploying because of the heat and fire, but there’s obviously a lot of risks associated with a vehicle on fire like this.”