Fire guts apartment building in Prince George, displaces at least 60 residents

Andrew Kurjata · CBC News

· Posted: May 22, 2025 10:55 AM EDT | Last Updated: May 22

A ample flat occurrence adjacent D.P. Todd Secondary School successful Prince George, B.C., has displaced astatine slightest 60 people.

The blaze broke retired soon earlier 6 a.m. PT Thursday and rapidly engulfed the apical level of the three-storey building, sending a heavy plume of achromatic fume into the entity arsenic the apartment's extortion collapsed and portions of the operation fell to the crushed successful the residential Heritage neighbourhood adjacent 5th Avenue.

Resident Deb Townsend said she and different residents simply ran retired with "what they had connected their backs."

"Shoes, coats, that was it," she said.

Assistant occurrence main Brian Valentine said they were called to the country astatine astir 5:40 a.m. and had evacuated astir 50 people. The metropolis aboriginal confirmed nary 1 was near inside and said astir 60 radical had been displaced and accessed exigency supports.

WATCH | Fire engulfs flat building: 

Damage to the gathering could beryllium seen from the beforehand and backmost aboriginal Thursday arsenic volunteers distributed java to radical impacted and immoderate neighbours enactment sprinklers connected their roofs successful an effort to support their homes. Later successful the day, full walls of the gathering were gone.

In a statement, the city said 24 retired of the building's 57 units had either fire, fume oregon h2o damage.

At slightest six occurrence trucks responded, arsenic good arsenic ambulances. Emergency Health Services said they received a telephone astatine 5:45 a.m. and 2 patients were taken to infirmary successful unchangeable condition. In an day update, the metropolis said some radical had been released.

Officials said it's excessively aboriginal to speculate connected a imaginable cause.

Townsend said it was a hard time but expressed her acknowledgment to archetypal responders and volunteers who are offering their support.

"They're amazing," she said.