A man trapped on a balcony and a small white dog caught in a smoky apartment are safe after a three-alarm fire at a Burnaby apartment building Wednesday morning.
The Burnaby Fire Department was called to the blaze at a three-storey walk-up at 7040 Balmoral St. just before 9 a.m.
Crews arrived to find a man trapped by thick smoke on a third-floor balcony at the front of the 44-unit building.
While one engine hooked up to the nearest hydrant, another threw up a ladder and rescued the man, according to fire Chief Joe Robertson.
The fire had started in a third-floor apartment at the back of the building, he said.
Resident Gianni Carino was wakened before 9 a.m. by his father, who said he smelled smoke.
Carino said he went into the hall and saw his next door neighbour, who told him the fire had started on his stove.
“I ran back to my side where I knew there was a fire extinguisher,” Carino said. “I broke it; I ran back. I was in there for maybe three to five minutes. I took two big inhales of smoke and I just couldn’t handle it, so I covered up and I ran out. I went back inside my suite to get my cats. I found one of them. I tried picking him up and he just scratched me up and he jumped off into the hallway where there was a bunch of smoke, so I don’t know if he’s OK or not.”
Crews rescued one pet, a Maltese dog named Song, left behind when its owners scrambled to get out of the building.
After giving the pup some oxygen, firefighters handed it back to its owner, Sunny Kim.
“Firefighter is awesome,” she said. “They take the smoke out, even with the dog. … I’m so glad.”
Seven engines, three ladder trucks and about 45 firefighters responded to the blaze, which scorched two units and smoke-damaged the entire third floor.
