An apartment building on Bromley Street in Coquitlam was evacuated early on Wednesday morning after fire tore through two fourth-floor units.
Nobody was hurt in the incident, however a cat believed to have resided in the unit where the blaze originated was killed in the fire.
Coquitlam fire chief Wade Pierlot said the cause of the fire was still being investigated and that it was fortunate that nobody was hurt.
"It was a positive outcome in what could have been a tragic situation," he said. "The building had recently done a fire drill and there residents were up to date on what do if the fire alarm goes off."
Pierlot added that residents would be spending Wednesday night in a hotel as contractors assessed the damage and reset the fire alarms. He expected that most of the occupants would be able to return to their units by the weekend.
The fire is believed to have started on the patio of one of the units and moved into the interior of the building. A neighbour that had left a patio door open also had flames come into their apartment.
Because crews were able to engage the fire quickly, Pierlot said firefighters managed to contain the blaze to the two units and keep flames from spreading into the ceiling.
However, he noted that there was some significant water damage to the units below.
"The building is largely unscathed," he said. "It is not going to take months and months [to fix]."
