The Vancouver Fire Department answered the call to a second alarm fire that destroyed a structure near a popular Downtown Eastside watering hole Monday night.
Crews received the call at about 8:37 p.m. and arrived at a single storey, abandoned commercial building in the 700 block of East Hastings Street, next to the Astoria Hotel.
The daily email you need for
's top news stories.
Firefighters quickly knocked down the blaze, which gutted the structure.
Batallion Chief Dan Nichols tells Global News the cause is under investigation.
“The cause is undetermined, at this point,” says Nichols. “The building was abandoned and boarded up, but it appears that people living inside the building, so… it’s still under investigation.”
There were no injuries.