The massive Vancouver fire in the Dunbar neighbourhood on Tuesday night sent debris falling onto homes and streets for kilometres.
On Wednesday morning, charred debris could be found in people’s yards and on sidewalks and roadways.
Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services were called around 6:45 p.m. to a building under construction on West 41st Avenue near Blenheim Street.
Intense heat from the flames also caused a crane on the building site to collapse during the blaze. It brought down trolley wires and power lines onto 41st Avenue.
“When you can see how close this crane came, it actually landed on a house, in the middle of a house, and an individual was trapped inside that house,” Vancouver Fire Chief Karen Fry said on Wednesday.
“Between our firefighters and VPD, we extricated that patient from a window in order to evacuate them from a house when it was safe to do so.”
While the crane collapse damaged that house, two other homes in the area were lost due to the flaming embers.
One was next door to the building under construction and one was “several blocks away,” Fry said.
Several other homes were damaged in the fire.
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim said on Wednesday morning that the fire brought many residents on to the streets.
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“Carnival atmosphere is, it’s not an appropriate word, but it kind of describes what was going on yesterday,” he said.
“There are literally hundreds of people, concerned residents in their neighbourhood, watching this event unfold, and there was deep concern. And there was, you know, embers, flying through the sky, landing blocks away.”
Sim said firefighters not only had to deal with flames shooting six storeys into the air but the flying embers starting nine other fires that crews had to extinguish.
“Embers from this fire, which was a six-storey wood-frame building under construction, were igniting additional fires,” Fry said.
“It created its own semi-kind of firestorm and it impacted residents and the neighbourhood and created excessive smoke.”
Sim said the heat from the fire was unbelievable.
“If you look across the street on 41st, the heat was so intense that it literally melted the siding off of homes,” Sim said.
“I can’t stress how proud I personally am and how thankful I am. And on behalf of an incredibly grateful city for our firefighters and our police officers and all of our first responders here.”
This was the second large fire that Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services were called to on Tuesday night.
Crews were called to Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood earlier in the day.
Firefighters arrived to find the third floor in flames, and aerial footage showed flames shooting from the roof of the building.
The building at 414 E. 10th Ave. was boarded up from a previous fire in July 2023, which left 30 people homeless.
“Our emergency personnel responded with everything we had,” Fry said.
“We had two rigs left in our city at one point in time. We made changes to our responses to other calls.”
Fry said that currently there are no active fires related to either blaze but crews remain on the scene at both locations to look for hotspots.
“We now have road barricades in place to ensure the safety and the impact on roads,” she added.
“The crane site, which is still blocking 41st, will take a longer time to clear.”
All residents on the north and south side of West 41st Avenue between Blenheim and Collingwood Streets and the south side of West 40th Avenue between Blenheim and Collingwood Streets cannot return home yet.
Residents outside of those areas are able to return to their homes.
“As with every fire with damage, a full investigation will be taking place to determine the circumstances surrounding both incidents,” Fry added.
She praised the work of Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services and everyone who was called to the area last night.
“I spent time walking around that site late last night, and it is remarkable the efforts that our firefighters did. And when we talk about heroes, these are our heroes, right? They saved lives. They saved properties. That is what we are hired to do.