On August 6th, a fire broke out at an apartment building under construction in the Dunbar-Southlands area of Vancouver, British Columbia (BC), spreading to nearby houses and causing a major disaster when a construction crane collapsed.
According to the Vancouver Fire Department, the call came in around 6:30 p.m. The scene was a six-story wooden apartment building under construction on West 41st Avenue, and by the time firefighters arrived the entire building was already engulfed in flames. The fire spread to nine homes.
In addition, a construction crane collapsed during the firefighting operation, taking down power lines and bus trolley wires before hitting a nearby house, whose residents had to be rescued by firefighters. Several firefighters suffered minor injuries.
Vancouver firefighters had been busy battling a separate fire just hours before on East 10th Avenue, and Deputy Chief Robert Weeks of the Vancouver Fire Department expressed his thanks to residents and firefighters from Richmond and Burnaby who came to help.