A spike in suspicious fires to vacant houses has Fire Chief John McKearney calling for more robust standards that would require property owners to do a better job of boarding up homes before they are demolished for redevelopment.
McKearney’s recommendation comes as he and city staff are also exploring the possibility of charging property owners for the cost of extinguishing a fire and investigating how the blaze erupted, if an owner is derelict in properly boarding up a house and securing a property.
The recommendations are in response to firefighters seeing a significant increase in the number of fires to vacant homes in Vancouver. As of last Thursday, there have been at least 25 suspicious fires in vacant homes this year, with eight of those occurring since Oct. 23. A vacant church in Kerrisdale also went up in flames last week.
The chief said there were two suspicious fires to vacant homes last year and four in 2014.
“What’s been happening is it’s a mixture of people going in there for squatting purposes or going in there for arson purposes,” said McKearney, pointing out the houses had already had power cut off before they were set ablaze.
He said the vacant homes, which are usually in deteriorating states of repair, are not only dangerous for people breaking into them but for firefighters who are required to ensure nobody is inside during a blaze. He noted in one recent fire, holes had been cut in the floor.
“That’s not a great place that I want my firefighters to be,” McKearney added.
Const. Jason Doucette, a VPD media relations officer, told reporters last week that police are investigating whether any of the fires are linked. So far, he said, no one has been seriously injured in the blazes.
“It’s just a matter of time before one of these fires spreads to a nearby building, including other houses,” said Doucette, noting the fires have occurred across the city. Police have set up a tip line, 604-717-0605, if people have information on any of the fires.
In separate interviews, NPA Coun. George Affleck and Green Party Coun. Adriane Carr both told the Courier they were concerned that so many houses in Vancouver are slated for demolition. Affleck also suggested the vacant houses are tied up in red tape at city hall and can’t be knocked down right away.
“I think that we have created a bottleneck at city hall because of competing policies and conflicting policies that have created this perfect storm of homes that are in mid-process of something or another,” he said. “It’s got to be related to the significant policies we have on everything from cutting down a tree to recycling every piece of your home to a heritage review to the general slowness of city hall.”
In February, the Courier reported the City of Vancouver had issued an average of 940 demolition permits per year for single-family homes and duplexes since 2012, with the largest number given to property owners in Dunbar and Southlands, according to statistics provided by the city. The adjacent West Side neighbourhoods of Dunbar and Southlands, which are home to some of the most expensive real estate in Canada, saw an average of 117 demolition permits issued from 2012 to 2015.
When asked if there should be more rules around owners boarding up vacant houses, including installing perimeter fencing and hiring a security guard, Affleck said he couldn’t provide “a simple answer.”
Carr said she was worried some of the houses have been left vacant for a long time, which not only creates a target for an arsonist but becomes an eyesore for a community. In the meantime, she said, better boarding up of a home coupled with hiring a security firm could help reduce the number of fires to vacant homes.
“It begs the question again: ‘Why in a city so desperate to find homes for people, where affordability is such a crisis, do we have boarded up homes sitting around for years?’” she said, noting she wanted to find out more information about the state of the 25 homes hit by fires. “I don’t like the idea that we are demolishing perfectly good homes, if that’s the case.”
The vacant homes that have caught fire are not to be confused with the empty homes that Mayor Gregor Robertson is aiming to tax for being either left empty year-round or under-occupied. City staff has recommended that non-principal residences unoccupied for six full months of the year or more should be levied with a one per cent tax.
Homes that have been gutted and set for demolition are not likely to be taxed because the owner has already begun a process to redevelop the property. Empty homes have not had power cut and are considered livable but vacant because it is a second or third residence for an owner, who is treating it as a commodity instead of renting it.
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