Fines issued to owners of demolished Vancouver apartment plagued by fires

Fu Ren and his wife Feng Yan, who own the property at 414 East 10th Avenue, were found guilty of a trio of bylaw offences following a trial on Dec. 13 and fined a total of $37,500.

The owners of a Vancouver apartment building demolished by the city in August after two major fires in little more than a year have been fined for failing to secure the site after the first fire.

Fu Ren and his wife Feng Yan, who own the property at 414 East 10th Avenue, were found guilty of a trio of bylaw offences following a trial on Dec. 13 and fined a total of $37,500.

Ren and Yan were convicted of failing to comply with a September 2023 fire order to keep the building secure from squatters, maintain a 24-hour fire watch and remove any fire hazards.

Ren received a $7,500 fine for each offence while Yan was fined $5,000 per offence.

The city ordered the Mount Pleasant building be torn down due to its condition following the second fire.

The property, which was recently assessed at $8,025,700, is now listed for $18 million and billed as a “vacant Broadway Plan site” with the potential for development up to 20 storeys.

“You have a landlord here who clearly did not care about his obligations as a landlord, his obligations to his tenants or the life, safety or health of the people who lived in the building,” neighbour Rob Bucci told Global News.

After flames tore through the former apartments in July 2023, displacing 70 tenants, Bucci said there were multiple smaller fires as squatters sought refuge at the site – before what was left of the burnt building was gutted by a second major fire this past August.