Skip to content

Fire at Vancouver SRO building displaces dozens on Downtown Eastside

No one was injured but building sustained smoke and water damage
30498208_web1_180218-BPD-M-vancouver-fire
Dozens of residents of a Downtown Eastside SRO were displaced Sept. 24 after a fire broke out in someone’s suite. ( Photo credit: Ruth Hartnup/Flickr)

More than 50 residents were forced from their homes Saturday (Sept. 24) by a fire at a single-room occupancy building on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Brian Bertuzzi, asst. chief of operations at Vancouver Fire Rescue, says the fire broke out in a suite and spread to neighbouring suites and through the ceiling to the floor above.

He says no one was injured but the building sustained significant smoke, heat and water damage and residents were evacuated.

Bertuzzi says the cause of the fire remains under investigation and it’s unlikely that residents in the most damaged areas of the building will be allowed to return before Monday.

The building’s address is listed online as Sereenas House for Women, a supportive housing project operated by Atira Women’s Resource Society with 56 beds.

It is the latest in a string of blazes at single-room occupancy buildings, including a fire at the Winters Hotel that killed two people in April.

The Canadian Press

READ ALSO: Second body found during demolition of burned Vancouver hotel

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.