A balcony fire that threatened to engulf a three-storey Moodyville strata resulted in one death Monday morning.
B.C. Coroners Service has been tasked with determining the identity of the deceased.
Firefighters had been told the suite’s tenant was on vacation but investigators discovered the body Monday afternoon, according to City of North Vancouver fire chief Dan Pistilli.
Two tenants were hospitalized with smoke inhalation.
Firefighters were on the scene shortly after 5 a.m. following a flurry of 9-1-1 calls alerting crews that a blaze at 357 East Second St. had chased at least three residents to their balconies.
As crews from across the North Shore kept the flames from consuming the wood-frame building, firefighters rushed up ladders to save at least three balcony-bound tenants and one dog.
“(One) lady was more worried about getting her pet out than she was herself, but we managed to rescue both of them,” Pistilli said.
The three-storey walk-up was built in 1973 but recently had its smoke and heat detectors upgraded, which may have saved the lives of second-storey tenants Zennia Miorin and her husband.
“We thought it was a false alarm,” she said, explaining the detectors had been triggered before by neighbours making toast.
After first trying to turn off the detector, Miorin’s husband headed to the balcony and realized the suite directly above them was in flames.
The couple roused their four-year-old daughter, who was “sleeping like a log,” wrapped her in a blanket and raced outside; also stopping long enough to scoop up their skittish cat before she could escape.
The experience was surreal, according to Miorin.
“I don’t think anyone really realized what was happening,” she said.
The young family took shelter on a bus while firefighters doused the blaze.
The fire presented an additional problem for Miorin, who had just sold her strata unit and was planning to move her family to a more spacious home in Campbell River in September.
“We have been living in a one-bedroom for nine years because the market was so horrible for the last five,” she said, adding that she wanted her daughter to have her own bedroom.
The sale is up in the air at the moment, according to Miorin, who said meetings with lawyers and real estate agents were likely.
When discussing the outpouring of generosity from friends, neighbours, and even acquaintances she thought had forgotten her, Miorin was emotional.
A “friend of a friend” offered them a place to sleep Monday night. Kidsland daycare immediately opened their doors for Miorin’s daughter, even though she’d been out of daycare for five months.
While she was grateful for the offers of lodging, clothes and kindness, Miorin said she was concerned about the building’s older residents.
“I don’t know if they’re getting that same amount of outreach that we’re receiving.”
While her daughter is “concerned about her stuffies” and Miorin is worried about her wedding album, she said firefighters were able to recover some personal items and computers with hard drives that appeared to be intact.
“We’re lucky that we’re in that community.”
The fire damage was largely contained to three units but “a good percentage of the building” suffered smoke and water damage, according to Pistilli.
“It’ll take some time to get it back and livable again,” he said, adding he expected residents to be displaced for “quite a long period of time.”
The fire resulted in temporary street closures as well as a power outage after BC Hydro shut down the grid.
Fighting the fire was a joint effort, Pistilli noted, commending the District of North and West Vancouver fire departments, RCMP, and B.C. Ambulance for their quick response.
The investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing.
