FIREFIGHTERS had to head into a train tunnel to put out the flames of a burning homeless camp Wednesday afternoon.
Multiple 9-1-1 calls came in around 3: 30 p.m., reporting thick black smoke coming from the train tunnel at the foot of Chesterfield Avenue.
"Multiple units, both from North Van city and North Van district attended. We had a crew go in and they located a fire approximately 100 metres into the tunnel," said city fire chief Dan Pistilli.
"It was a mattress and some discarded rubbish, some sleeping bags. It was a bit of a camp they had set up."
Firefighters searched the area but the bed's owner was nowhere around and there were no reported injuries.
First responders had to evacuate the nearby ICBC office building and 171 West Esplanade and shut down the road for about two hours while crews mopped up.
"It was a bit of mayhem for a bit," Pistilli said.
While not every person sleeping on the streets wants to stay in a shelter, outreach workers would have liked to have given the option to whoever was calling the CN Rail tunnel home, according to Linda Fox, manager of the Lookout homeless shelter.
"Our shelter is always full. We run at about 104 per cent capacity," Fox said, "But if a person is willing to come . . . we will make a way for it to happen. We're not going to leave someone outside. We're going to figure something out."
Getting off the streets and into a shelter is often the first step to getting connected with a range of services and finding permanent housing, Fox said.
