Surrey Fire Service says close to 100 people were displaced Halloween night as a fire broke out on the third-floor of a Guildford apartment building.
It happened around 11:30 p.m. Thursday in the 10600-block of 150th Avenue.
“We attacked the fire there, and were able to contain the fire just to that unit,” said Assistant Fire Chief David Burns. “But it did cause some water and smoke damage to surrounding units.”
He estimated “close to 90 to 100” residents were evacuated from the building’s 48 units, but said roughly half had regained access to their homes by Friday morning.
“Twenty four of those units are still unoccupied until we complete our investigation today,” he said around 8:30 a.m. Friday (Nov. 1).
Burns said fire investigators would be at the scene Friday.
Asked when the remaining residents could return, Burns said “we don’t know exactly.”
“We had to turn off power and heat to the building, so we need to make sure that we can restore that before they’re let back in,” he explained.
Burns said the cause of the fire has not yet been determined.
“That’s why we’re going to have investigators there today. There was lots of fireworks in a neighbouring park or open area, but we don’t have any proof that was the cause at this point.”
Two people went to hospital with what are believe to have been minor injuries, noted Burns.
