Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services data show firefighters responded to just over 100 fires at single-room occupancy hotels in 2017 and the following year, before rising to 169 in 2019.
For nearly three years, fires have been ripping through the century-old dorm-style apartment buildings in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside at an increasingly
Captain Matthew Trudeau, spokesperson for the fire department, said he expects the number of fires his agency has put out at SROs this year – 170 as of earlier this month – will increase to meet or exceed last year’s tally as more people flock inside to avoid wet winter weather. So far this year, the Downtown Eastside fire hall has responded to 592 indoor and outdoor fires – which means the tiny patch it patrols has seen nearly a quarter of all the 2,669 fires across the city, he added.
BC Housing says larger fires at six buildings have displaced 343 people this year, starting with the blaze that destroyed the Winters Hotel fire in April and killed two residents. Only 155 of those evacuees have returned to their rooms, the provincial agency said this month. The other 188 who lost their homes in three of the buildings were offered long-term units elsewhere, but the agency could not say how many people accepted its offers.
“We have shelter spaces for about 1,500 and I’m hearing shelters are turning folks away now,” said Ms. Swanson, who was not re-elected in the Oct. 15 municipal election.organizes tenants to push for better conditions in these buildings owned and run by private landlords, said there doesn’t appear to be one cause behind all the most devastating fires, despite conspiratorial rumours to the contrary among people living in the Downtown Eastside.
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