An unidentified man died in a tent fire shortly after 9 a.m. on Christmas Day near sa国际传媒 Place in Vancouver. Cooking paraphernalia was found inside the tent.
Vancouver Fire Rescue Services were called to the site and found a man fully engulfed in flames on the street just outside his tent, which was also on fire.
The incident occurred in a small tent encampment near the ramp that leads to the underground garage beneath sa国际传媒 Place.
“The person was on the road closer to where Cordova goes down,” said VFRS Chief Keith Stewart. “There are a few tents there. Tragically, the person succumbed to their injuries. We determined they were cooking and that caused the fire.”
The unhoused population in Metro Vancouver has grown 32 per cent since 2020, and people living in tents are extremely vulnerable to fires from unsafe heating and cooking sources.
In December, chief coroner Lisa Lapointe reported a sharp increase in the number of unhoused people dying, with 342 fatalities last year and 267 in 2021, far higher than the recent annual average of 183 deaths per year.
