Dozens of people have been displaced after a man in distress set fire to his suite in the Capital City Centre Hotel late Thursday.
Dan Foster, who lives in the downtown hotel at 1981 Douglas St., said he was awakened by a “big alarm.”
“I was sleeping. I had nothing. I ran out with my pants in my hand,” he said.
The suite was on the second level facing Discovery Street, he said. “I walked around the whole building and it was flaming pretty good.”
All 94 suites were evacuated, Assistant Battalion Chief Ross Isherwood said at the scene. Three people were trapped in their suites and rescued by ladder.
B.C. Ambulance Service personnel treated six people for smoke inhalation, he said. There were no other injuries.
Fire crews were on standby before the fire began, as Victoria police were negotiating with a man who had barricaded himself in a suite and was threatening to light a fire.
A man in crisis called police about 8:30 p.m., saying he was armed. When officers arrived, they spoke with the man from outside his suite because he had barricaded the door. He was threatening to harm himself.
“While officers continued to speak to the man from outside his suite and resolve the incident safely, the smoke detector in the suite began to sound and smoke was observed coming from the suite,” Victoria police said in a statement. “Officers attempted to enter the suite to rescue the man but were held back by the barricaded door.”
Police saw fire in the suite and tried again to enter the suite. They were able to get in but were pushed back by heavy smoke and flames.
The Victoria Fire Department said the report of smoke in the building came shortly before 10 p.m.
“We had two more engines, a ladder and my command vehicle and a rescue truck respond,” Isherwood said. Nineteen firefighters were at the scene.
He said heavy smoke could be seen in the hallway.
The fire in the room was “fully involved,” but firefighters were able to “basically keep the fire to the suite,” Isherwood said.
Victoria police spokesman Const. Cam MacIntyre said it was a “very dynamic, very chaotic scene.”
The man who started the fire was apprehended under the Mental Health Act and taken to hospital. Police do not expect charges to be laid.
The damage is estimated at $250,000. Most of the fire damage is contained to the suite where the fire started but there is significant smoke damage to most of the building, said Deputy Fire Chief Dan Atkinson. It’s unclear how long it will take to remediate the building.
Eighty-four units in the building are managed by Our Place Society as supportive housing for people with complex needs and the other units are rented out as hotel rooms, said Our Place spokesman Grant McKenzie. The fire started in a suite that is not managed by Our Place, he said.
The Red Cross, emergency services personnel and staff from Our Place connected with the displaced residents to find them somewhere to stay. Some people took shelter in a B.C. Transit bus until they could be placed in hotels.
Our Place is working with B.C. Housing to come up with a longer-term housing plan for those who were displaced, McKenzie said. “Losing these 84 rooms, which hopefully will be temporary, that is quite a blow to trying to house people.”
