General Vancouver Updates II

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by MIPS

Not often you get two major structure fires a few hours apart! o:

People said they heard an explosion but not sure if that was the tower crane collapsing.

[hollywoodnorth]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

People said they heard an explosion but not sure if that was the tower crane collapsing.

crane collapse video here >> https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...ug-5-1.7287148

[Spr0ckets]

Looks like it was a busy day for Vancouver Firefighters.
Another fire I caught sight of this afternoon while on the Skytrain, in the Mt. Pleasant area. I thought it was forest fire smoke at first, since it's that season - but then it definitely looked more like a building fire smoke than a forest fire.

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/crews-called-t...ding-1.6991150


Seems like it was a building that had already been ravaged by a fire a year ago and was vacant and abandoned at the time it went ablaze today.
(most likely squatters, I would bet - although, the Fire Services didn't confirm or go inside until the fire was under control so as of that reporting no bodies had been found(?)).

That building,......or whatever remains of it.....should be demolished.
It should have been demolished a year ago after the first fire.

As long as it maintains any semblance of shelter, it's going to remain a fire risk for another fire again, and a harzard and danger to the people living in the immediate neighbourhood.

EDIT : Was this the other fire that MIPS was referring to?

[MIPS]

The one up by 40th and Dunbar.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...ug-5-1.7287148

[Vin]

One commonality with these structures that went up in flames: they are all wood-frame.

Solution to halt more insurance-bleed: build concrete or steel-frame.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by Spr0ckets

Looks like it was a busy day for Vancouver Firefighters.
Another fire I caught sight of this afternoon while on the Skytrain, in the Mt. Pleasant area. I thought it was forest fire smoke at first, since it's that season - but then it definitely looked more like a building fire smoke than a forest fire.

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/crews-called-t...ding-1.6991150


Seems like it was a building that had already been ravaged by a fire a year ago and was vacant and abandoned at the time it went ablaze today.
(most likely squatters, I would bet - although, the Fire Services didn't confirm or go inside until the fire was under control so as of that reporting no bodies had been found(?)).

That building,......or whatever remains of it.....should be demolished.
It should have been demolished a year ago after the first fire.

As long as it maintains any semblance of shelter, it's going to remain a fire risk for another fire again, and a harzard and danger to the people living in the immediate neighbourhood.

EDIT : Was this the other fire that MIPS was referring to?

That's some pretty dramatic footage of the Collingwood and 41st fire! Who is the developer again?

[RedArbutus]

Originally Posted by whatnext

That's some pretty dramatic footage of the Collingwood and 41st fire! Who is the developer again?

Sightline Properties. It was going to be a ~110 unit secured market rental. Brutal.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by RedArbutus

Sightline Properties. It was going to be a ~110 unit secured market rental. Brutal.

That sucks. Some more detail on the fire:

Massive Dunbar blaze created its own ‘firestorm’: VFRS chief
By Charlie Carey

Posted August 7, 2024 9:20 am. L

As Vancouver Fire Rescue Services crews were responding to a fire at an abandoned apartment building in Mount Pleasant Tuesday afternoon, a second call came in for help after another structure went up in flames on the other side of the city.

In an update Wednesday morning, Fire Chief Karen Fry explained just how big the response was after the fire on West 41st Avenue in the city’s Dunbar neighbourhood created “its own kind of firestorm.”...

....“The fire, in the Dunbar neighbourhood, [was reported] at about 6:30 p.m. After our crews arrived on scene, a crane was also collapsing. Embers from this fire, which was a six-storey wood-frame building under construction, were igniting additional fires.


“Our emergency personnel responded with everything we had. We had two rigs left in our city at one point in time. We made changes to our responses to other calls,” Fry explained.

The collapsing crane also took down trolley wires and power lines with it. A gas line rupture also caught fire, though crews were able to get that under control quickly.

At any given time, the City of Vancouver has approximately 150 firefighters on duty, Fry explained, including more than 35 available apparatus. Fry shared that there were upwards of 70 firefighters, “if not more,” working to knock down the Dunbar fire, while crews were also redeploying from the Mount Pleasant fire at the same time....

...While there were no injuries reported, one person is incredibly lucky to be alive after the crane fell on their home.

“When you can see how close this crane came, it actually landed on a house — in the middle of a house — and an individual was trapped inside that house. Between our firefighters and VPD, we extricated that patient from a window in order to evacuate them from a house, when it was safe to do so.”..

https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2024/0...rm-vfrs-chief/

[officedweller]

I was wondering if the crane fell on a house-brutal.

[jollyburger]

It would be interesting to see what caused the crane to collapse. I assume since it was a wood frame that it would just have been locked in at a single point in the foundation.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by officedweller

I was wondering if the crane fell on a house-brutal.

Yes, the person is lucky to be alive.

I was wondering, if the fire was called in at 4:30pm I assume the workers would still have been onsite?

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Yes, the person is lucky to be alive.

I was wondering, if the fire was called in at 4:30pm I assume the workers would still have been onsite?

The West 41st fire happened at 6:30. The fire over near Mt Pleasant was the one at 4:30

[Spr0ckets]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

It would be interesting to see what caused the crane to collapse. I assume since it was a wood frame that it would just have been locked in at a single point in the foundation.

A wood kindled fire, while likely not hot enough to melt steel objects, can nevertheless still get hot enough to cause the structural members of the Crane's truss support system to buckle. And a simple buckling or deformation is all you need to create an imbalance that causes a collapse.

It all depends on how close to the base of the crane the fire's flames got and for how long the frame was exposed to the heat.

Remember that at any given time a crane - even when not in operation - is usually always supporting at a minimum, the massive counterweight slabs at the top of the rigs and anything upsetting that balance (like support members down below buckling) would be enough to bring the whole rig collapsing down.

It's a good reason why cities always have restrictions on where and how you can erect cranes - especially close to public infrastructure like highways or skytrain guideways.

I suspect heavy fines and a lawsuit or more are incoming depending on the Fire chief's report - especially if the cause of the fire was related to, or can be traced to the construction activity.

[jollyburger]

The fire looks like it started on one of the top floors so I guess it most likely weakened that section of the mast near the roof where it tipped over.

https://preview.redd.it/41st-and-dun...=webp&b64991e0

2021 article about a Kelowna 4-storey wood frame fire and one of those tiny cranes operated from the ground.

Huber says by the time he arrived on site, fire crews had already been fighting the blaze for a couple of hours. By that time, the tower had started to straighten itself up, but fire crews told him there had been a 20 to 30 per cent bow in the crane due to the heat, which was causing it to lean over.

“Once we started getting the fire knocked down, the heat went away and it straightened itself right back up,” says Huber.

https://www.craneandhoistcanada.com/...n-kelowna-b-c/

Google Streetview shows the crane in May with 4 larger counterweights and one tiny one on the end (?)

[Feathered Friend]

Despite winning city council’s approval in 2020, the development application for this 6 floor strata building at Cambie & W 37th Ave was cancelled last month. A reason wasn’t provided, but the new Transit-Oriented Areas Zoning does allow for 12 storeys here.

https://x.com/City_Duo/status/1821317643854606779

[osirisboy]

Oh good!

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

The West 41st fire happened at 6:30. The fire over near Mt Pleasant was the one at 4:30

Ah, I see.

As to the fire in Mt Pleasant, why was that building still standing?! There's a couple derelict, burned out apartment buildings around town, I'm surprised no there's no requirement to demolish them. The one on 10th is infamous:

Former tenants relieved Mount Pleasant apartment building to be destroyed after most recent fire
Tuesday August 6, 2024. (CityNews Image)
By Charles Brockman

Former tenants of a Mount Pleasant apartment building are speaking out after the structure caught fire Tuesday, nearly one year after another massive blaze displaced over 70 residents from the same building.

Vancouver Fire Rescue Services told 1130 NewsRadio that Tuesday’s fire was the third time that flames had broken out in the low-rise building at 414 East 10th Avenue, near Guelph Street.

In July of 2023, a massive fire erupted after it was determined was caused by candles, noting it was accidental.

Assistant Fire Chief Keith Stewart said there were no injuries during Tuesday’s blaze. While no one was discovered inside, Stewart suspects the fire was caused by a person who had been in the already burned building....

....One former resident, Taylor Calhoun, told 1130 NewsRadio Wednesday that the building should have been destroyed after the first fire. Instead, she says her and other residents’ belongings were there as fuel for future fires.

“Everybody had to leave their furniture. No one was allowed to take furniture with them — so couches, beds, things like that. We had very limited time to go in, so people still had a lot of their lives in there where they couldn’t take it....

...She says the City of Vancouver and the landlord of the building have neglected their responsibility to protect residents of the building and the neighbourhood.

“There was no precautions taken for anybody’s safety: surrounding neighbours, the people who are perhaps living in the building. Again, that’s not confirmed, but speaking with Fire Rescue yesterday, they believe that the fire did start from inside, from squatters, and so the safety of people who could potentially be sneaking in there to live — it’s just blatant disregard for everybody.”

Calhoun says she and other former tenants have protested the city to investigate the landlords and the conditions that led to the initial fire.

The landlords of 414 East 10th Avenue, Fu De Ren, also known as Henry Ren, and his wife, Fang Yan, have a record of multiple fire safety violations at buildings they own, including a 2009 fire in Burnaby that left one woman dead.

“Thankfully, this one, nobody was hurt. But you know, it feels like the city’s really protecting him. They’re not doing anything. He had over 20 fire code violations that nothing was done....

https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2024/0...tenants-react/

[jollyburger]

The base of the tower mast is still there so it looks like it did fail at the roof. Maybe the nuts/bolts failed and it sheared off?



https://vancouversun.com/news/refuge...ed-dunbar-fire

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/2-homes-destro...fire-1.6991759

CBC has some closer photos of the mast





https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...ined-1.7287444

Some kids from the neighbourhood were climbing up to the roofs to help put out fires until the firefighters showed up.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

The base of the tower mast is still there so it looks like it did fail at the roof. Maybe the nuts/bolts failed and it sheared off?.

Wow. I once lived in a condo that was across the street from a construction site. If I recall, the developer had to pay the strata for use of the air rights as the crane would swing overhead. Does that still apply?

[Vin]

Originally Posted by Feathered Friend

https://x.com/City_Duo/status/1821317643854606779

Very glad about this cancellation.

Developers can't make a profit with the current 6-storey condo. Also, despite the ultra expensive units, the quality would be sub-par with no good amenities, as well as being situated along a busy roadway corridor. With less foreign money coming into real estate now due to the current global climate as well as high mortgage interest rates, it would be a hard sell especially when marketed to locals.

A mixed-use commercial development would be best suited along a noisy corridor, especially for one close to a skytrain station. Unfortunately, many developers already rushed into building those 6-storey condos around here, and this is very inefficient land usage for this new town centre.