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Car fire causes West Vancouver Community Centre evacuation

The District of West Vancouver had to shut down the West Vancouver Community Centre and the WV Aquatic Centre early Monday morning as firefighters fought a car fire in the building’s parkade.
Rec centre fire
West Vancouver Fire and Rescue members had to extinguish a burning vehicle in West Vancouver Recreation Centre's parkade early Monday morning.

The District of West Vancouver had to shut down the West Vancouver Community Centre and the WV Aquatic Centre early Monday morning as firefighters fought a car fire in the building’s parkade.

A rec centre staffer was on his way into work around 6:20 a.m. when he saw smoke coming from under the ’94 Intrepid’s hood.

“He and another staff member tried to fight the fire with a fire extinguisher and it was really difficult to get to so it spread very quickly. The car was mostly involved,” said West Vancouver Fire and Rescue Chief Martin Ernst.

The flaming vehicle notwithstanding, everything went as it should, Ernst added. Staff called 9-1-1 and evacuated the building and the parking lot’s sprinkler system kicked on.

An investigator will work to find a cause, though this isn’t unheard of in older vehicles to go up like that, Ernst said.

“When you mix 12 volts with gasoline and plastic, you can have quite a cocktail of issues if one of those things isn’t going right,” said Ernst.
The district had resumed programming at the centre by 11 a.m.