Serious injuries in highrise fire
Blaze started in eighth-floor apartment
Two people, including a young girl, are in serious condition in hospital and five others are injured after a fire Sunday morning on the eighth floor of an apartment building in Oliver.
Residents of Oak Tower, an 11-storey building at 11635 102nd Avenue, crowded behind yellow police tape and watched firefighters climb an aerial ladder to reach the girl on the west side of the building.
Other injured residents were rushed out of the building’s front doors on stretchers and moved into waiting ambulances.
A distraught woman identified the rescued girl as her fiveyear-old daughter. She said her husband, who uses a wheelchair, was also injured.
She said she lives on the eighth floor and was at work when the fire broke out. The woman declined to give her name.
Deputy fire chief John Lamb said crews responded after receiving a call at 11 a.m. from residents in the building. The fire was soon declared a twoalarm fire and was later escalated to a three-alarm fire, with about 60 firefighters at the scene.
“Typically, it takes about four to five firefighters to rescue one person that can’t rescue themselves, so it’s labour intensive,” Lamb said.
EMS treated seven patients for smoke inhalation and took five to hospital, Lamb said. Six patients were adults and one was a child.
“There were two people we are very concerned about,” he said.
The fire, which was contained to one suite, was under control by noon and declared out at 12:15 p.m.
Anne Ong lives with her niece, nephew and their family in unit 802, which she said is next to where the fire began.
She heard fire alarms ringing Sunday morning and opened the door to find thick, black smoke.
“We just grabbed the children and ran out,” she said.
Ong said a family lives next door.
Nicholas Vojvodic and Jean Nagy live on the 10th floor and left the building with their three cats, Skittles, Rick James and Carrot.
“We grabbed the cats and ran through thick smoke, which lasted for two or three floors,” Nagy said.
Once outside, Vojvodic said he watched as flames shot out of the eighth storey and firefighters rescued other residents.
“We saw three people coming on stretchers and it looked like they were getting CPR. So it doesn’t look too good. We were scared for other people.”
More than 100 residents, including many families, were moved to the gymnasium at Oliver School, located across the street from the apartment building. The Red Cross provided assistance.
By mid-afternoon, many children who live in the building went outside to play soccer and use the playground.
Fire officials said residents on the eighth floor and above would likely not be allowed to return home Sunday because of extensive smoke and water damage.
District chief John Bower said fighting a fire in a highrise is challenging.
We have to take control of the elevator, we have to catch a standpipe in the building and get the water up there, so there are a lot of issues involved in fighting highrise fires,” Bower said.
“Today went really smoothly. The guys did a great job.”
The cause of the fire is under investigation and a damage estimate has not been released.