Arson suspected in heritage home fire

Police and fire investigators suspect arson in a blaze early Sunday morning that did serious damage to a Shaughnessy heritage home.

“It was definitely suspicious,” Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services spokesman Jonathan Gormick said.

The police and fire departments responded to a house fire at 3737 Angus Drive just before 2:30 a.m. The house was vacant and no one was injured.

The home was built in 1910 by Maclure and Fox, a noted architectural firm, for financial agent Frank Rounsefell and his family, who moved to Shaughnessy from the West End around 1913.

The five-storey, 9,790-squarefoot home and property is protected from demolition — unless at least 60 per cent of it is burned — under the First Shaughnessy Heritage Conversation Area, a city directive to protect homes built before 1940 from being torn down and replaced with bigger homes.

The house is the first severely fire-damaged protected structure under the Heritage Conservation Area in the First Shaughnessy District. The city makes decisions on protected heritage homes on a case-by-case basis, a spokeswoman said, and is gathering information to assess the house’s condition.

The First Shaughnessy district, Vancouver’s first heritage conservation area, is bordered by West 16th and King Edward, and Arbutus and Oak streets, where 315 of 595 properties were built before 1940, according to the city.

“It would be a huge loss. It’s a very important building in Shaughnessy,” heritage advocate and consultant Don Luxton said.