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Published Aug. 23, 2023 8:46 p.m. ET
A fire in East Vancouver on Tuesday morning has displaced 10 residents and closed down a number of businesses, including beloved gelato shop Dolce Amore and Hawaiian restaurant Hanai. (CTV)
A fire in East Vancouver on Tuesday morning has displaced 10 residents and closed down a number of businesses, including beloved gelato shop Dolce Amore and Hawaiian restaurant Hanai.
Fire officials find it concerning that such fires are becoming increasingly common in the city.
Loyal customers of Dolce Amore said they’re saddened by the closure of the shop and hopeful it’ll reopen soon.
In a statement, the owners said they are “still in shock and overwhelmed with everything that happened and still need time to process and move on.”
Hanai, which is located next door, has also shut down for the time being.
The restaurant posted to social media saying: “We woke up to news of a fire in our building this morning. Unfortunately, it’s severe, so we will be closed for the foreseeable future.”
The fire broke out in the three-story building on Commercial Drive at Graveley Street just after 5:30 a.m. Tuesday.
Crews arrived to heavy smoke coming from the first floor, which damaged apartments upstairs. Firefighters say the damage left 10 people without a home.
Fortunately, no one was injured.
“Anytime it’s this impactful, spreading this much and affecting any kind of residences, and when we have limited (housing) supply in the city, it’s hard to see,” said Matthew Trudeau, the public information officer with Vancouver Fire Rescue Services.
He added that such fires are becoming more frequent in the city.
“Really stepping back to last year, we had historic fires last year, the most we’ve ever gotten to in our history,” Trudeau said.
“And so, when we’ve compared the first six months from this year to last year, we’ve exceeded that by 31 per cent. So, we keep seeing this really sharp increase of our fires that we keep going to and it’s definitely impacting our communities and it’s really concerning with the dry conditions we have in the city.”
He’s reminding the public to set up smoke alarms to prevent residential fires.
The cause of the Commercial Drive fire is still unknown and is currently under investigation.
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