An empty unit on the fourth floor was the source of a three-alarm blaze that nearly destroyed an apartment building on Linwood Street Tuesday evening, according to firefighters.
The fire, which was reported around 4:30 p.m. on July 7, destroyed the entire fourth floor and parts of the third floor of the four-storey apartment building at 3950 Linwood St. near Canada Way and Burnaby Hospital, assistant fire Chief Erik Vogel told the NOW.
“Once it got in the roof, it ran and it was such a visible fire. If you saw any of the footage it just looked like the whole building was on fire but it was actually just the roof,” Vogel said.
Firefighters initially went in battling the blaze from underneath but that was deemed too dangerous so the ladder trucks were called in to douse the flames from above. Despite best efforts by firefighters, the fire spread from the roof into the building itself, eventually destroying the fourth floor altogether. There’s also smoke and water damage, from the hoses to a portion of the third floor and the majority of the second and first floors that wasn’t too charred by the fire, Vogel said.
“There’s a lot of water damage to the lower suites,” he added.
All residents and their pets were able to escape safely but two firefighters were injured. A notice on the City of Burnaby website reports that all the tenants had insurance and that no donations are needed. Some residents were being allowed back into the building on Wednesday to collect any items that survived.
“Residents are advised to contact Touchstone Property and/or the property manager for updates on damage, restoration and/or returning to their units,” the city notice states.
Any residents who have not yet registered with the Burnaby Emergency Support Services are asked to do so by leaving a message at 604-570-3772.
Forty-one firefighters responded to the three-alarm fire, which is nearly all the firefighters on shift at one time in Burnaby, Vogel added.
“Three-alarms is pretty much all we got, and I actually asked for more (firefighters) and they wouldn’t give it to me,” he said.
The initial investigation indicates the fire started on the balcony of a unit on the top floor of the building. The unit was empty at the time of the inferno, and the Burnaby Fire Department is still trying to reach the tenant to see if he or she has more information, Vogel added.
“It looked like they were doing some flooring,” he said. “There was a planter (on the balcony), so it could have been something as stupid as a cigarette butt in the planter but we can’t say because there’s so much damage.”
