One person has died after being pulled from a burning house in Burnaby’s Capitol Hill neighbourhood early Tuesday morning.
Firefighters were called to a two-storey home at the corner of Dundas Street and Ranelagh Avenue just before 1 a.m.
They arrived to find heavy flames and were told a person was inside, according to assistant fire Chief Barry Mawhinney.
“When they got there, there was fire coming out all windows on the Dundas side of the house,” he said.
The crews went into rescue mode, he said, and firefighters were sent into the building but had to retreat because of the intense heat.
“We had to knock the fire back a little bit and then they went back in,” Mawhinney said.
When they re-entered the building, they found a person in a bedroom on the second floor, he said.
One of the crews helped paramedics assist with patient care, but the person did not survive.
The BC Coroners Service confirmed Tuesday morning it is investigating the death of a woman in her 70s in relation to the fire.
“Our crews did everything they could. As a department…we send our best wishes out to the family,” deputy fire Chief Chris Bowcock told media at the scene.
Police and fire investigators are now at the scene to determine the cause of the blaze.
