Fire that ravaged homes in east Van believed to be caused by squatters
A big plume of black smoke rose over east Vancouver Thursday morning, as firefighters battled fires in four homes in the Strathcona neighbourhood.
The Vancouver Fire and Rescue spokesman, Capt. Jonathan Gormick, says firefighters were called at around 6 a.m. to a house fire in the 300 block of Prior Street, between Gore and Malkin avenues.
They arrived to find four houses on fire. One structure, which is believed to be where the fire started, was an abandoned house. That house was engulfed in flames and destroyed.
Gormick says there are unconfirmed reports that squatters had been staying in the house, adding that vacant-home fires are typically caused by people inside the homes unlawfully.
Gormick says the adjacent house was also damaged by fire but firefighters have not been able to enter the structure because of a hoarding situation. He says fire investigators don’t know if anyone was inside.
“Because of the amount of debris inside, we are not able to make entry. We have no idea whether someone was in there. We think someone lived there, but we don’t know if anyone was home at the time,” said Gormick.
The fire spread to two other houses, but firefighters were able to contain those blazes, and they were only partly damaged. The occupants of those two homes escaped unharmed.
The house where the fire started was a heritage home built in the 1880s, and had been partly rebuilt after a fire in 2008.
Traffic was disrupted in the area, and the Georgia Street viaduct was closed.