In addition to the six businesses in the damaged building, another seven businesses are affected by the closure of the collapse zone on Abbott Street, Stewart said.Īn investigation into the cause of the fire is in its infancy, Fry said, but early evidence suggests it began on the second residential floor. Shops, restaurants and businesses were also heavily damaged below the 89-room Winters Hotel on the building's upper floors. On Tuesday, Fry said two remained in hospital in stable condition, while Atira's CEO Janice Abbott said all but one had been released.Ībbott said an email it's believed all the residents escaped the fire, but efforts were underway to locate one tenant who is thought to be staying elsewhere. Twelve hours after 60 firefighters began fighting the blaze, the last hot spot was extinguished, fire Chief Karen Fry said.įive people were treated in hospital, including one who Fry said had jumped from an upper-floor window. Mayor Kennedy Stewart said the city is working closely with BC Housing and local social service agencies to find emergency shelters for those affected, while McMann said they hope to start getting people into permanent homes in days.Ītira Property Management, the non-profit that oversees the Winters Hotel, has set up a centre in the neighbourhood to help direct supports, Stewart said.įlames broke out in the 110-year-old building before noon on Monday and the fire department said the roof of the four-storey brick structure had collapsed within hours. "We're hopeful we can have the residents of the Gastown back before too long, but that's really not our call." We obviously have a shortage of housing throughout the Lower Mainland," said Dale McMann, the vice-president of operations for BC Housing. "Any time you lose 140, 150 rooms, it's devastating.
In addition to 71 residents who lost their homes at the Winters Hotel, another 73 people who lived in the neighbouring Gastown Hotel were also evacuated due to toxic smoke damage and its location in the collapse zone of the charred structure, officials from the city's fire department and BC Housing said during a news conference.īoth hotels are rooming houses and are known as single-room occupancy buildings, or SROs, housing some of the city's lowest-income residents. VANCOUVER - A building that was reduced to a shell by a fire in Vancouver's Gastown neighbourhood will likely be demolished, while the number of residents displaced by the blaze has risen to 144, officials said Tuesday.
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