‘I have nothing left’: Residents displaced after fire rips through Gastown heritage building

Yellow caution tape, barricades, Vancouver fire crews and Vancouver police officers remain at the scene of a fire that ripped through a building in Gastown Monday.

Five people were hospitalized and many more were displaced from their homes after flames broke out in the morning.

The building is a four-storey, mixed-use heritage building at Water and Abbott streets.

2:05 Cause of fire in Gastown still unknown

It contains a number of businesses, a women’s shelter and a single-room-occupancy hotel on the upper floors.

In an update Tuesday afternoon, Vancouver city staff said the building will most likely require demolition and for now, the surrounding streets remain closed.

Six businesses were damaged in the building and an additional seven on the street were also impacted by the fire and the street closure, city staff said.

The Gastown Hotel also cannot be occupied at this time.

In total, 71 residents have been displaced and an additional 73 residents at the hotel are also out of their rooms.

1:58 Several people rescued from building fire in Vancouver’s Gastown

Bettes Boutique at Main and Cordova streets is taking donations of clothes, bedding and other items to help support those who have been forced from their homes.

“That was my home, everything I own in there,” one resident told Global News. “My husband’s ashes, 30 years of my life just gone. I’m absolutely just devastated by it.

“Personally, I’m grieving my belongings because I have nothing left.”

It is believed everyone has been accounted for following the fire but officials said inquiries are still being made.

There is still no word on the cause of the fire.

Preliminary fire investigations appear to show the fire started on the second residential floor and moved up in the building, fire crews said Tuesday.

There is no information on whether the smoke alarms or the fire alarms were working or not.

The city is working closely with BC Housing and local social service agencies to find emergency shelters for those impacted by the fire.

Two GoFundMe accounts have been set up to help the victims of the fire.

Nika Design and the Gastown Improvement Society have both set up fundraisers where people can donate to help.

1:01 Global 1 helicopter captures rooftop view of 3-alarm fire in Gastown