Fire displaces sisters for second time
A two-alarm fire left a Maple Ridge building with wide-spread damage
Firefighters continued to fight hot spots into the morning hours after an apartment fire ripped through a downtown Maple Ridge complex.
Photograph by: Sheryl Jones , TIMES
Several Maple Ridge families may be homeless this Christmas, after a two-alarm fire Thursday night forced the evacuation of an apartment building on McIntosh Avenue.
Sisters Eva and Janice Lindgren are now looking for a place to live, again.
The house they lived in burned down a year and a half ago. This time they don't have insurance.
"I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I'm very confused," Eva told The TIMES.
"I spoke with BC Housing and the lady there said I'd be at the top of the list. And, the Red Cross came today and asked for our info."
"We both need glasses," she said about herself and her sister, who has epilepsy.
The fire appears to have started in a bedroom on the third floor of the four-storey building and triggered about 30 evacuations.
Two seniors had to be rescued from a balcony and one person was taken to hospital suffering from smoke inhalation.
The flames broke out in the building in the 22300-block before midnight.
More than 50 firefighters worked to extinguish the blaze. Fire crews remained on scene until Friday morning, putting out hot spots and persistent flare-ups.
Damage to the building was widespread - mostly from water - and residents are being put up in nearby hotels in the interim.
The cause of the fire is still undetermined and the investigation continues.
