Because of outdated building requirements, sprinklers were only installed on the building’s first floor.
A 67-year-old Vancouver resident came home to a scene of fire trucks, billowing smoke and the harsh glow of ambulance lights. His heart sank as he realized his apartment in the seniors’ housing tower he had lived in for three years was in flames.
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Ed Hawkey had spent the morning volunteering with homeless residents in his community, his two dogs by his side. When he returned to the West End’s Nicholson Tower at 1115 Nelson Street just after 2:30 p.m., he found his own home in crisis.
“The window of his seventh-floor apartment was blown out,” said his son, Trevor Hawkey. “I could hear in his voice, my dad was exhausted.”
Ed Hawkey was one of the 42 residents of the 1969-built, 20-storey housing tower — owned and operated by The Bloom Group Community Services Society non-profit — who were forced from their homes when a fire tore through the seventh floor of the building on Tuesday afternoon.
B.C. Emergency Health Services assessed a total of 15 patients at the scene just after 2:39 p.m.
“Paramedics provided emergency medical treatment to five patients who were transported to hospital in stable condition,” the service said in a statement.
A total of 12 injuries were reported from the blaze, including cases of smoke inhalation, with six individuals transported to hospital, according to Matthew Trudeau, who speaks for Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services. The conditions of the injured are currently unknown.
Tracking all those displaced has also proven difficult, Trudeau said. According to emergency support services through the City of Vancouver, 29 people have registered for assistance.
“We had a number of people who were older and had existing medical conditions, including heart, breathing, and vision impairments, as well as mobility issues, including the use of wheelchairs or walkers,” said Trudeau.
Although fire alarms were working when he arrived on the scene, Trudeau explained that due to outdated building requirements, sprinklers were only installed on the building’s first floor.
“There were a number of factors to this fire that were very challenging,” he said.
“We had people yelling for help upon arrival and others calling 911, saying smoke was filling their units or floors. We weren’t using the elevators due to concerns about the amount of water we were putting into the building, so we had to walk up the stairs to reach everyone individually on each floor.”
For tenants in the 15 units directly damaged by the fire — 12 on the seventh floor and three on the eighth — the loss of their homes is long-term, according to Trudeau. Several other adjacent units sustained smoke and water damage, leaving residents uncertain about when, or if, they will be able to return.
Water used to fight the fire also caused extensive damage to the building’s elevators, leaving both inoperable as of Wednesday.
Trudeau said the cause of the fire is still unknown, but investigators have begun their assessment.
Bloom Group CEO Wayne Henderson said Wednesday that all residents displaced by the fire had either been accommodated in hotels for the next few nights by the City of Vancouver and B.C. Housing’s emergency response services, or had gone to live with family members.
“We have plans for all of our folks so nobody has been displaced, but we have a little challenge with our elevators,” Henderson said. “We have a lot of folks here who use walkers and are older and getting on and have a lot of challenges getting in and out.”
In total, the building houses 295 residents across 221 units. The building was at 90 per cent occupancy.
Trevor Hawkey said that for his father the building offered him stability after a period of homelessness during which he slept in his car outside Oppenheimer Park. “It’s been a godsend.”
However, after the next few nights, they are unsure where his father will go.
“He’s had a rough last few years,” his son said.
The fire comes just a few months after the tower’s owners submitted a rezoning application to the city to redevelop 1111 Broughton Street, a small site a few blocks away, into another social housing tower.
That lot has been empty since 2018, following a major fire that destroyed a two-storey house on Jan. 27 of that year.