Apartment fire in Maple Ridge leaves 50 residents homeless
A fire in an apartment building in Maple Ridge forced around 50 tenants to leave their homes on Tuesday evening.
Maple Ridge Fire Chief Dave Samson tells 1130 NewsRadio that fire crews received a 911 call about the fire along 119 Avenue near 223 Street shortly after 7 p.m.
“It’s an older three-story building without a sprinkler system. When we arrived, there was a major fire on the second floor,” he explained.
“In one of the suites, the fire spread directly upwards, entering the third floor, the suite above and possibly the attic.”
Samson says emergency crews were told the resident of the first suite jumped from the second floor to escape the flames. That resident, along with another, was taken to the hospital and treated for smoke inhalation.
“Fortunately, none of our city residents suffered serious injuries,” he said.
The second alarm triggered 25 firefighters and emergency responders to battle the blaze, according to Samson. Emergency responders extinguished the flames from the outside before attacking and extinguishing the fire from the inside – what Samson calls a “transitional attack.”
“We were able to contain the fire to every suite on the second and third floors. But as you can imagine, the entire building has significant damage from the combination of fire, smoke and water,” he said.
“All 36 suites in the building are currently homeless, that’s about 50 people.”
The city of Maple Ridge activated its emergency services, Samson explains, and dozens of the homeless were housed in a hotel overnight.
“The cause of the fire is not yet known, but we will be conducting an investigation with the RCMP tomorrow,” Samson added.
