A fire that destroyed two East Vancouver buildings and was still smouldering into Thursday morning is currently under investigation.
Dave Rosenlund is a Battalion Chief with Vancouver Fire who responded to the fire when it was called in by an officer with the Vancouver Police Department just before 1 a.m. on July 1. The officer was driving up the 1700 block of East Hastings Hastings Street and noticed smoke coming from between two commercial buildings. The officer went around to the laneway to investigate and discovered a pallet fire that was sending flames up the side of one of the buildings.
@VanFireRescue crews remain on scene of a 2nd Alarm fire in 1700 block of east Hastings
— Assistant Chief Young (@ACSheldonYoung) July 1, 2021
Fire is knocked down but not out at this time
Power is out in this block and traffic will be affected for a few more hours, please avoid the area pic.twitter.com/HcQNxgX0IP
By the time crews with Vancouver Fire began to arrive the fire had gone up into the roof of both buildings on either side of the laneway. Additional firefighters were called to help and crews worked to control the blaze all night Rosenlund says. Crews were on scene until noon the same day.
"Once the flames went through the roof we backed off and basically it was a defensive fire for the rest of the night," Rosenlund said.
While Rosenlund admits the pallet fire that started the blaze doesn't seem exactly "natural," so far there has been no determination as to why the pallets were on fire in the first place.
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