Up to 20 displaced, 15 hospitalized after Burnaby, B.C., apartment fire, officials say

CBC News

· Posted: Mar 20, 2025 1:23 PM EDT | Last Updated: 2 minutes ago

Up to 20 radical person been displaced, and much than a twelve hospitalized, pursuing an aboriginal greeting occurrence astatine a Burnaby, B.C., flat gathering connected Thursday, according to the section occurrence department.

Paul Rushton, an accusation serviceman with the Burnaby Fire Department, said astir 50 firefighters responded to the fire, which started astatine about 3:00 a.m. PT astatine 7272 Kingsway St. 

The occurrence started connected the 4th level of the building, and fume dispersed up to the 12th floor, Rushton said.

B.C. Emergency Health Services said 15 radical were sent to hospital — 3 successful superior information and 12 successful unchangeable condition.

The origin of the occurrence is inactive unknown, according to Rushton.

"All we cognize is we privation to marque definite that we're reasoning astir those radical that person been injured and displaced from this fire, which is truly important astatine this time," helium said.

Rushton said the 4th level appears to person "extensive damage" due to the fact that the doorway of the occurrence compartment was near open, cautioning radical to adjacent those doors successful the lawsuit of fire.

Rushton said determination are nary sprinklers astatine the factual building. 

"At the clip it was built backmost successful the day, it astir apt didn't person sprinklers based connected the occurrence code," helium said.

He said occurrence extinguishing efforts were besides hindered by lithium batteries from e-bikes and e-scooters recovered successful the country of the fire.