Construction workers and neighbours had to be evacuated Tuesday after a “stubborn” house fire in Metrotown spread to a house under construction next door and threatened the home next to that.
Burnaby fire crews were called to 6890 Gray Ave. at about 12:10 p.m. to find thick black smoke pouring from a 104-year-old, single-storey, wood-frame house.
The fire had started in a lean-to attached to the right side of the building, according to assistant fire Chief Gavin Summers.
“It got roaring up the siding, inside the lean-to, inside the structure of the house,” he said.
The fire also spread to a house under construction next door, he said, and workers had to be evacuated, along with residents of the house next to it.
With plenty of fuel to feed the fire at the unfinished home and no drywall to slow it down, Summers said firefighters pulled off an “unbelievable save.”
“Usually when we get a house under construction and fire gets a hold of a house, unless we’re able to really get lots of water on it real fast, it’s going to burn to the ground. These guys did a phenomenal job saving it,” Summers said.
No one was injured in the blaze. The occupant at 6890 Gray Ave. got out safely and called 911, but the fire there was a stubborn one, according to Summers.
“It was into the structure itself,” he said. “A lot of fires are just room and contents, so it’s easy to knock down the fire.”
The fire department was on scene until about 6 p.m.
About 45 firefighters and 14 trucks responded.
The fire is under investigation.
