Crews were called to battle a fire in a top-floor unit in a supportive housing facility on Vancouver’s Granville Street Wednesday afternoon.
Vancouver Fire Rescue Services said it called in support from a second fire hall to help battle the flames and search for occupants in the former Howard Johnson hotel that now serves as a single-room accommodation housing facility.
“This did get upgraded to a second alarm due to the population inside, a vulnerable population,” VFRS Capt. Matthew Trudeau said.
Crews had to close Granville Street between Helmcken and Davie streets while they battled the flames.
Trudeau said two people were taken to hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.
He said the fire appeared to be contained to a single unit, but that crews were working to ensure it didn’t spread to the roof.
Crews deployed a ladder truck after they faced challenges with water supply and getting into the unit due to “severe hoarding,” he added.
“The sprinkler did contain it, but the hoarding conditions have made it incredibly challenging, the number and amount of combustible inside, all that heat, all that smoke,” Trudeau said.
The B.C. government bought the building at 1176 Granville in 2020, and controversially converted it to housing as it sought to quickly shelter the city’s homeless during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It has since generated thousands of emergency calls, with residents setting fires, pulling fire alarms and setting off the building’s sprinkler systems.
“We get a number of all kinds of calls to this building and buildings like it, overdoses, medical calls, alarm bells ringing, false alarms and a number of fires,” Trudeau said.
“Just recently, we had a fire in here where a woman suffered third-degree burns from a torch that set a couch on fire.”
Trudeau said he does not believe there were any further injuries.
It remains unclear how many people may be displaced by the fire.