Picture: Glacier Media
Vancouver firefighters responded to 504 emergency calls at one downtown single-room-occupancy lodge in 2022, with the bulk associated to a smoke alarm being triggered by tenants smoking cigarettes and narcotics.
Vancouver Hearth Rescue Companies cited privateness causes for not disclosing the identify of the lodge however confirmed in an interview that it was situated downtown, the place the vast majority of town’s SRO buildings are concentrated.
The fireplace division launched the statistics Tuesday through Twitter and stated the proprietor of the lodge is being billed for false alarms and prosecuted for bylaw infractions associated to the constructing, though specifics weren’t offered.
“I haven’t got a full full listing [of the bylaw offences] as a result of it has been submitted to authorized for prosecution and did not wish to get into too many particulars in a single tweet,” stated public data officer Matthew Trudeau, noting the aim of highlighting the SRO through Twitter was to tell residents of the magnitude of calls one constructing has generated for firefighters.
“Our public educators have given data to this constructing, our hearth prevention employees has additionally gone out to this constructing as a part of a job drive to assist the folks there.”
Trudeau described authorized motion because the “final choice” in getting the proprietor to implement no-smoking orders within the constructing. 4 fires have been reported on the lodge between January and October 2022, he stated.
Firefighters responded to greater than 200 SRO fires throughout town in 2022, with two folks dying in April within the Winters Resort hearth in Gastown. A person additionally died in June after a lithium battery brought on an explosion inside a room on the Empress Resort, close to Important and East Hastings streets.
‘Larger-risk inhabitants’
Vancouver has a mixture of B.C. authorities, Metropolis of Vancouver and personal SROs which can be sometimes managed by non-profit organizations. In some circumstances, tenants have entry to well being and different social companies, whereas others don’t provide helps and cost above-average lease.
“We do have a lot of very nicely managed, very clear, very secure, very good SROs which can be operated in and lived in with out incident all through town,” Trudeau stated.
“However there is a higher-risk inhabitants in sure SROs, and people are those which can be driving up our name quantity. There are psychological well being challenges, substance abuse challenges occurring and persons are not getting the wanted helps.”
Of the 504 emergency calls to the SRO highlighted in Tuesday’s tweet, Trudeau stated 300 have been associated to smoking and others to medical calls, which might embrace however should not restricted to tenants experiencing chest pains, problem respiration and overdose.
Regardless of the amount of calls generated by the lodge, Trudeau stated each is attended to with the identical urgency and diligence. On the identical time, he added, adherence to bylaws and setting coverage that stops frequent visits frees up a fireplace crew to answer different emergencies.
“We’re all the time going to be there for folks, but when we are able to put methods in place to eliminate a number of the false alarms, then we might be free [in downtown] to offer companies and be there faster for a extra environment friendly service,” he stated.
Hearth Chief Karen Fry
Hearth Chief Karen Fry spoke to metropolis council in November and stated fires proceed to extend within the metropolis.
Fry stated firefighters responded to a median of 10 fires per day between January and November that brought on harm to a constructing or construction.
Ten folks died in fires in 2022, with the newest dying occurring New 12 months’s Eve in a home on Ormidale Road, close to Boundary Street and Kingsway.
A person in his 70s was the sufferer.
Overdose calls have averaged 19 per day, with eight per day trip of the No. 2 hearth corridor within the Downtown Eastside.
As of the third week of November, firefighters administered the overdose-reversing drug naloxone 777 instances this 12 months, with greater than 300 injections achieved by crews at No. 2 corridor.
“We’re saving lives, and we’re defending folks as greatest we are able to with the assets that we’ve,” Fry instructed Glacier Media in November. “However we’d like extra.”
Fry has requested council rent 40 firefighters and 15 different employees this 12 months.
Glacier Media lately joined a fireplace crew within the Downtown Eastside for 12 hours. Firefighters have been referred to as twice in these 12 hours to the Resort Persepolis on Columbia Road after alarms have been triggered by tenants smoking within the hallways of the SRO.
Trudeau stated the Persepolis was not the lodge highlighted within the division’s tweet.