VANCOUVER — Two Vancouver tenants have been ordered to pay more than $500,000 following a November 2017 apartment fire that a judge ruled was "foreseeable."
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Matthew Kirchner ruled Angela Chou created a risk of harm and fire by keeping her apartment "in a near-hoarding state" with densely packed items covering most of the floor space and stacks of possessions as deep as one metre at some points.
Chou and her former partner Danny Chen, who was not living there but was still listed as a tenant, have been ordered to pay the Langara Gardens apartment building more than $512,000 for damages caused by the fire.
"I am satisfied Ms. Chou created an objectively foreseeable and unreasonable risk of harm — and risk of fire in particular — to Langara and the other tenants by keeping her apartment in a near-hoarding state," Kirchner's said in his ruling released online Friday.
The fire spread to other apartments, and the court ruled Chou must also pay $56,000 to Langara Gardens for the rent lost while damaged units were repaired.
A fire investigator testified the blaze started when household goods in the unit, likely a box or a pillowcase, made contact with a halogen bulb when Chou was momentarily out of the room.
Chou and a neighbour tried to put the fire out using a baby bathtub to carry water before pulling the building’s fire alarm and evacuating.
"I find Ms. Chou was negligent in causing the fire that damaged her unit and other parts of the building," Kirchner concludes in the ruling.
Kirchner's decision notes that Chou had insurance at some point, which is required under the tenancy agreement, but allowed it to lapse before the fire.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 16, 2023.
The Canadian Press
