Vancouver firefighters urge working smoke alarms after group doesn’t notice their house is on fire

A file photo shows a firetruck belonging to the Vancouver Fire Rescue Services. (City of Vancouver)

Vancouver firefighters are urging residents to make sure they have working smoke alarms after a close call earlier this week.

Vancouver Fire Rescue Services says crews arrived at a house fire Tuesday morning to find seven students were still inside, some in bed, unaware the attic was full of smoke.

“Being woken up in the morning from the door getting forced open as crews broke through the locked door, they probably didn’t think we’d be showing up for their house on fire,” Capt. Matthew Trudeau told CTV News. “They were pretty shaken up.”

A neighbour had called 911 around 9 a.m. after seeing smoke coming out of the roof of the detached house in the 2100 block of West 46th Avenue.

Thankfully, fire crews were already driving in the area and arrived quickly, got everyone outside, and extinguished the fire.

Trudeau says the group were lucky and things could have gone south quickly if it weren’t for the 911 call—as the home had no working smoke alarms.

“Smoke is first thing people will succumb to; it’s incredibly toxic… only a couple of beaths can incapacitate someone,” he said. “If the ceiling failed you’d have seconds at that point with smoke actively growing in the space.”

He explained that fires in modern homes spread faster, shrinking the window of time to get outside safely, which means early notification is crucial.

“I don’t think people fully appreciate how quick those fires can happen how quickly it can spread and those seconds really do matter,” Trudeau said. “Early notification makes a such a huge difference for how fire progresses.”

VFRS’s advise a smoke alarm on each level, outside a sleeping area. It’s the homeowner or landlord’s responsibility to install smoke alarms and keep them in working order, but Trudeau urged tenants to speak up if there’s any issue.

Nobody was injured in the fire, but the home’s eight residents are now displaced. They do have somewhere to stay going forward, Trudeau said.

Investigators deemed the fire accidental, caused by an electrical issue in the attic.