Fires in Vancouver, Surrey keep firefighters busy on Halloween night

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Halloween night was a tricky one for local firefighters dealing with calls in Vancouver and Surrey.

Crews were still managing the after-effects of a fire on Athlone, just south of 41st Ave., early Friday morning.

Vancouver’s Assistant Fire Chief, Dan Stroup, said firefighters arrived early in the morning and found a house in flames.

Vancouver Fire has put out a fire off 41st Avenue on Athlone. No one was home when it started about 3am. Crews will be dealing with hotspots for some time yet. pic.twitter.com/cJGQPvhwFC

— Mike Lloyd (@llikemoyd) November 1, 2019

“Fire came in at approximately 3:15 a.m., it was quickly upgraded to a second alarm. The house was fully involved when crews arrived on scene,” he says. “Everybody was out, it was vacant at the time and luckily everybody’s safe.”

In the west end, there was a fire high up in a tower on Beach Ave. near Burrard. Flames were shooting out of a balcony just after 6 p.m., but it was contained to the unit and no one was hurt.

Apt building fire @sunset beach #Vancouver #sunsetbeach pic.twitter.com/ZPmD28ubQT

— Kevin Marques (@marqueske) November 1, 2019

In Surrey, a third floor fire in an apartment near Guildford Town Centre forced an evacuation of the building.

It’s not clear how any of these started, and Stroup says figuring out the cause of the Athlone fire will take time.

“Fire investigators are on scene and trying to determine that,” he says. “There’s extensive damage to it, that might take a while.”