New Westminster Fire and Rescue Service is tight-lipped about a fire that left 68 tenants temporarily displaced from their homes.
Plumes of black smoke poured out of an apartment building in the 200 block of Ash Street shortly after 11 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 29. The fire began in a first-floor suite at the rear of the building.
Deputy fire chief John Hatch said two suites had extensive fire and smoke damage, and a third suite sustained slight damage in the fire. Other suites in the north wing of the building suffered smoke damage.
"We know where the point of origin is. However, we do not know the cause as of yet," he told The Record. "It is on the first floor."
Hatch couldn't say which room of the apartment unit the fire began, or if anyone was in the suite where the fire started.
"It is under investigation," he said about the cause of the fire.
According to a press release from the City of New Westminster, the police department is working with New Westminster Fire and Rescue Services and New Westminster emergency management to determine a cause of the fire. A damage estimate wasn't available at The Record's deadline.
Following the fire, Emergency Social Services processed about 68 residents. Seven tenants were temporarily relocated to a nearby hotel, while 61 stayed with personal contacts.
Hatch said electrical service to the building was initially cut so tenants couldn't return to their suites that evening. He said about half of the tenants living on the south suite of the building were allowed to return to their homes the following evening, and some tenants living in suites on the north side were later allowed to return to their suites.
According to Hatch, the building owner and insurance companies are working with the building department at city hall on repairs to the suites most damaged in the fire.
Hatch commended staff and volunteers with Emergency Social Services for doing a "tremendous job" in helping tenants who were displaced by the fire. He also said fire crews did an "outstanding job" knocking down the fire and preventing damage to more suites in the low-rise apartment building.
New Westminster Police Insp. Phil Eastwood told The Record that the suite where the fire originated was fully engulfed in flames when fire crews arrived. No one was injured in the fire.
