An "old" Coquitlam townhouse complex was the subject of a fire Thursday night (Aug. 19) and its cause is now under investigation.
There were no injuries reported, but fire chief Jim Ogloff confirms to the Tri-City News emergency social services (ESS) was activated as several tenants were displaced from the Garden Court Co-op — located at 2865 Packard Ave. — after it caught ablaze around 6:30 p.m.
The entire campus appeared to have evacuated at the time of the fire.
Smoke was seen coming out of a second-floor balcony, but six units of fire crews from four halls were able to extinguish the flames within three hours.
Ogloff explains the suite of origin endured extensive damage as well as 10 adjacent suites that experienced either minor smoke or water damage.
About 30 residents had appeared to be watching from the roadside while firefighters tackled the blaze.
"The building has a number of seniors occupying the suites, so our City Emergency Social Services has been activated with a reception centre established at Pinetree Community Centre," Ogloff adds, noting paramedics were also on scene.
"There were no injuries directly associated with the fire, but crews responded to a citizen struck with seizures near the building."
One witness told the Tri-City News there are allegedly no sprinklers in the Garden Court Co-op because of the building's age and that the power had allegedly gone out before the fire took place.
Ogloff explains he's not aware of any power outage, "but typically power failure on the electrical grid does not link as a source of ignition for fires as an electrical energy source unless there is a direct equipment failure at the property, which we cannot confirm at this time."
BC Hydro crews and city officials were also on scene Thursday assessing the damage.
Coquitlam Fire Rescue conducted remediation efforts alongside fire prevention staff in hopes residents of unaffected suites could go back inside for the night.
Investigators are scheduled to be at the complex today (Aug. 20) to continue the damage assessment, Ogloff says.
He encourages anyone displaced by this incident to register with ESS staff at Pinetree Community Centre or a building management representative.
The Garden Court Co-op is a member of the Co-operative Housing Federation of BC (CHF BC).
