Firefighters battled an intense fire that engulfed and destroyed a four-storey building under construction in south Vancouver Thursday evening.
Assistant operations chief Brian Bertuzzi told Global News that fire crews arrived at West 62 Avenue and Columbia Street at 5:45 p.m. and were greeted by the sight of flames shooting from the upper two floors.
Crews immediately went into defensive mode and upgraded it to a third-alarm assignment, Bertuzzi said, with their priority being to protect neighbouring properties from the searing heat and embers.
The intense heat burned through fire-hose lines in the back lane, scorched fences and cracked some windows in adjacent properties.
Some nearby rooftops also suffered damage from burning embers.
In all, there were no injuries reported.
The cause and origin of the fire is yet to be determined.
Firefighters took about an hour to knock down the blaze, and spent the remainder of the evening chasing hot spots in the building.