Vancouver fire chief calls for action after propane tank explosion and fire in Downtown Eastside

The head of Vancouver's fire department is calling on the city to do more to move tents away from buildings in the Downtown Eastside after a propane tank explosion and fire on Sunday that destroyed several tents in an encampment and spread to the entranceway of a nearby building before it was contained.

Vancouver Fire & Rescue Services Chief Karen Fry said her crews have responded to 370 outdoor fires on East Hastings Street over the last eight months. Four people have already been injured this year, she said. 

In July, Fry issued an order to clear the tent city. The tents have been reduced, but the fires have increased. 

"At this point, we're just fortunate more people haven't died or been injured," Fry said Tuesday.

While tent fires are a huge safety risk, people living on the streets and the support groups that work with them say options to keep warm are scarce. 

Fry said fires related to heating devices inside tents are common. She said crews are seeing gas-powered devices such as torches and wood stoves coming into contact with flammable items, including clothing or sleeping bags. Propane tanks can explode, as can the lithium batteries used for e-bikes or electric scooters.

Yet another fire around noon on Tuesday in a tent across from where Sunday's fire occurred was quickly put out.

Some of these recent fires have spread to buildings, Fry added. Tents have also blocked entrances and exits from those buildings, slowing people trying to escape and firefighters trying to get inside — endangering everyone from residents to firefighters.

John Henry, who has lived in the tent city on Hastings Street for five months, says people don't have much choice other than propane tanks to stay warm.

At the beginning of winter, he says people set up a fire barrel away from their living quarters, but the fire department kept shutting it down.

"They left us no choice but to hide our little fires to keep ourselves warm," he said. 

Fry said tents shouldn't be permitted near buildings.

"It's risking too many lives, damage to the buildings and risks to the responders in the area ... I get that it's a very complex situation in the Downtown Eastside, and we have a lot of different resources down there trying to address the risk," she said.

Anna Cooper with the Pivot Legal Society says the fire department needs to work with unhoused people to come up with realistic and safe options to stay warm.