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THINGS TO DO THIS WEEKEND FRIDAY FEBRUARY 17, 2017
LOCAL NEWS – LOCAL MATTERS
There’s more at Burnabynow.com
SEE PAGE 21
Fire leaves 25 homeless in Burnaby Residents of Stratford Gardens say they saw it ‘coming a long time ago’ GUTTED:
By Cornelia Naylor
At left, a pair of Burnaby firefighters inspects an apartment ravaged by a Wednesday morning fire at a B.C. Housing complex on Pandora Street. Below, Stratford Gardens tenants board a bus with their pets and a few belongings after fire and smoke destroyed their building. Tenants were taken to a hotel and told they’d be contacted by B.C. Housing in the coming days.
cnaylor@burnabynow.com
Twenty-five low-income Burnaby residents lost their homes in fire at a B.C. Housing complex this week. The Burnaby Fire Department was called to Stratford Gardens, a multibuilding housing complex at 6035 Pandora St., at about 9:40 a.m.Wednesday. A blaze had broken out in a two-storey building that houses about 12 apartments. “There were flames and heavy smoke coming out of a ground-floor suite when we arrived,” assistant fire Chief Barry Mawhinney told the NOW. The fire department responded with eight trucks and 30 firefighters, but the building sustained significant damage before they extinguished the blaze. “The fire suite was gutted,” Mawhinney said. “The fire came out the glass doors, so there was charring on the outside of the building and heavy, extensive smoke damage to the rest of the building. It’s not inhabitable right now because everything is contaminated.” No one was taken to hospital, according to fire officials, but one firefighter sustained minor injuries. Residents and their pets – three cats and one rabbit – were evacuated and gathered in a common room on site until they were bused to a hotel at about 4 p.m.
PHOTOS CORNELIA NAYLOR
When I was coming downstairs it was all smoke ... Lynn, a resident who didn’t want her last name used, said she had “stupidly” gone to the second floor when the fire broke out to see what was happening. “When I was coming downstairs, it was all smoke,” she said, “so I couldn’t get back to my apartment, and I didn’t put my cats in the cases. I didn’t think it was a fire.” Fortunately, she said, firefighters managed to corral her cats, Abigail and Scar-
let, in their crates and carry them out of the burning building. “The firemen were fantastic,” Lynn said. Resident Ken Contois, meanwhile, said he left the building without even the shirt on his back. He had been trying to get dressed in his bedroom, he said, when his wife pulled him out of the apartment. “My wallet’s on the floor and I had no glasses or anything like that, and all I had on was my pajamas and no shirt,” Contois said. “It was raining. I was getting a free shower.” The cause of the fire was still being investigated as of press time Thursday, according to fire officials, Continued on page 10
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