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About 100 residents are displaced after a major fire at the View Towers apartment highrise in downtown Victoria on Thursday morning.
The blaze in a ninth-floor suite around 7 a.m. forced evacuation of the entire building and sent eight people to hospital for smoke inhalation treatment, including seven Victoria police officers.
Flames and billowing smoke could be seen shooting from the ninth floor unit of the building at 1147 Quadra St.
Several Victoria police officers were the first on scene. They ran from floor to floor knocking on people’s doors to get them to leave the building. Four officers stayed in hospital for treatment of smoke inhalation.
Victoria police Const. Cody Lapierre was one of the officers who went inside to evacuate the building.
“It was smoky. It was a chaotic scene for sure,” Lapierre said, adding that many residents were panicked.
“All the doors were locked so we had the battering ram just in case. We were able to make it to the 14th floor [of the 19-storey building]. Hopefully, we were able to get out as many people as we could.”
George Garrett, who lives few doors down from the suite where the fire started, said around 7 a.m. he heard people from the courtyard yelling about a fire and saw smoke seeping into his apartment. He got dressed and rushed into the hallway, which was dense with smoke.
“I managed to bang on a few doors as I went,” said the 83-year-old. “Very low visibility, I must have been holding my breath as I went.”
He said he saw several Victoria police officers running up the stairs and down hallways to rouse people out of bed and evacuate the building.
Garrett said he’s lived in the building for 21 years. “I’ve been through many fires but this is the one that scared me the most.”
Joanne States, a resident who lives on the 18th floor, said she was concerned about the fate of elderly people in the building.
Victoria Fire Chief Paul Bruce said when firefighters arrived there was fire showing from the ninth floor and crews did an exterior attack with a ladder truck and then an interior attack and search of the building.
Bruce said one resident was taken to hospital with smoke inhalation.
Residents of the 350-unit, 19-storey building spent most of the day at the Cook Street Activity Centre as firefighters aired out the building. Some residents were escorted by police to their suites to get medication or personal belongings.
Rob Johns of the Victoria Emergency Management Agency said there are 77 suites where it has been recommended residents not return right away.
“About two-thirds of the building can return tonight,” he said. Residents were given a return time of 8 p.m.
Others will be sleeping in hotels, or staying with family and friends.
Some suites will take days to repair, while others could take weeks, Johns said.
Fire inspectors were on scene all day trying to determine the cause of the fire.
Lt.-Insp. Brad Sifert said the initial investigation has determined that the resident may have fallen asleep with a lit cigarette which sparked the fire.
Sifert said at least 15 to 20 suites on the east side of the building will likely have smoke or water damage.
The Victoria Emergency Management Agency evacuee assistance team and the Salvation Army gave the displaced residents food, drinks and blankets as they gathered at the Cook Street Activity Centre.
“We also have the capability to house 30 people in our shelter as part of our emergency response,” said Kyla Ferns of the Salvation Army.
“It’s a very tragic situation for the residents,” Fern said. “Whenever you’re displaced like this there’s a huge amount of stress involved. There’s a lot of chaos and confusion around the whole situation.”
Andrew Wynn-William, executive director of the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness, said he was “almost sick to my stomach” hearing that up to 100 people could be displaced.
He said emergency agencies have been great in providing immediate, short-term assistance to the residents but “in the long term, there’s very few other affordable options for those individuals.”
The vacancy rate for units costing less than $700 a month in Greater Victoria is below one per cent, Wynn-Williams said.
“The challenge that they’re now faced with is where are they going to go next?”
View Street road closure
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