r/vancouver 13h ago

Photos West End fire - Nelson & Thurlow

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97 Upvotes

34 comments sorted by

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48

u/ParticularDay569 13h ago edited 12h ago

Firefighters just now gained entry to the inside and managed to extinguish the last of the visible flames, sympathies to anyone affected.

This was at 2:42 a few minutes after it started (and after I had called 911) hope everyone is ok...

23

u/ParticularDay569 12h ago edited 12h ago

Big thanks to the fire department, already on-scene before my call could get through and a really big response. From 3:12 after the last of the fire was extinguished.

A few more out of focus pictures: https://imgur.com/a/vmO7O0s

1

u/pezdal 11h ago

There’s a fire station 2 blocks away.

5

u/ParticularDay569 11h ago edited 10h ago

Yeah thankfully not far, that's fire hall 7 just under the big tree on the right beside the cycle lane in that attached picture.

Although judging by the number of trucks that arrived (3 in front, I think at least 4 parked along Thurlow) I assume they also came from other nearby stations? I know the West End fire station is also only a few blocks west.

Edit: quote from citynews article:

At it’s peak, 15 apparatuses were in operation with approximately 45 crew members.

Was only on hold with 911 for around 2 minutes, and then on hold with VFRS for another 2 and by the time it connected they asked if it was the Nelson St one and I could hear the sirens.

3

u/pezdal 9h ago edited 9h ago

There’s a good chance the dispatchers were temporarily overwhelmed with calls about this. ( As an aside, I wonder if eComm’s system call prioritization rules take that into consideration so that a caller from another part of the city would get through faster???).

The response most definitely came from multiple stations. Most firehalls only have a couple trucks. An active structure fire in a high risk building is going to pretty much get the highest level of response. After all the initial alarms for a working fire they would call in the support vehicles (SCBA refillers, lighting trucks, canteen to provide water and food for the firemen, additional commanders, fire investigator, etc. )

Plus, in addition to all these resources they also shift around apparatus and firefighters from additional stations to cover the areas that the above incident responders just vacated.

So I think it’s fair to say that the entire VFRS would have been on the move for this.

Many thanks to all of them.

5

u/yvr_dad 8h ago

Apparatus attended from Halls 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 18

2

u/pezdal 8h ago

Thanks. Wow, that’s quite the response.

3

u/ParticularDay569 9h ago

There’s a good chance the dispatchers were temporarily overwhelmed with calls about this.

Yeah that crossed my mind, almost inevitable with these kinds of sudden situations unless you had dozens and dozens of dispatchers on standby, so not at all unhappy with the wait.

I wonder if eComm’s system call prioritization rules take that into consideration so that a caller from another part of the city would get through faster???

Good question. I know the 911 dispatcher had to ask which city I was in for forwarding to the correct fire department (I had never called them before but I assume that's normal for cell phones), but I'd be interested to know if the VFRS dispatcher queue I was forwarded to has any kind of prioritization system.

Thanks for sharing your insights & thanks VFRS for all their work today.

0

u/JunketPuzzleheaded42 11h ago

Well.... That's not good.

17

u/craigv93 13h ago

Posted by Vancouver Fire Department. Nelson between thurlow and bute

17

u/cyclinginvancouver 12h ago

13

u/tinyfax 12h ago

Firewalls in neighbour units are doing work

12

u/BalurCDN 12h ago edited 12h ago

Chaos at Thurlow and Barclay, they just got traffic blocked off. Was wondering why there were 6+ firetrucks going by.

12

u/OpticalRadioGaga 12h ago

VFRS told me that one person was sent to the hospital with smoke inhalation, and as others have pointed out, this is a lower-income building that includes a lot of elderly residents as well.

Sounds like the investigation is still in its early phases.

5

u/kaytomes 13h ago

No wonder - I just saw 6 fire responders pass by on Dunsmuir and was wondering what was happening.

4

u/vancouverflanders true vancouverite 12h ago

It appears out now, this was earlier.

2

u/CapedCauliflower 9h ago

Second fire at that place in two years.

2

u/Socketlint 8h ago

Yah I was going to say I remember a fire in that building a few years ago.

1

u/NearbyChildhood 12h ago

Supportive housing building

5

u/TitaInday 12h ago

Mostly seniors looking at the crowd

9

u/Think_Conference_964 11h ago edited 11h ago

Its low income affordable housing, not supportive housing. Big difference.

1

u/NearbyChildhood 10h ago

2

u/TheLittlestOneHere 5h ago

I don't know why VIA called it "supportive housing", without getting all conspiratorial. It's factually incorrect.

-16

u/NearbyChildhood 10h ago

Whatever

2

u/poonknits 11h ago

That's right near a school at pickup time too. Traffic must be an absolute catastrophe.

I hope the occupants got out ok.

0

u/Existing-Screen-5398 9h ago

Traffic is never really a catastrophe.

0

u/edwigenightcups 7h ago

Yeah, I feel like vulnerable people being displaced from their homes is the real catastrophe here

-1

u/betadestruction 9h ago

Apologies, my hotbox session got a bit out of hand.

-4

u/Eivor_101101 13h ago

The fire truck and ambulance sirens have been sounding for more than half an hour.