Gastown fire: Scrambling to help the 71 people who lived in the once-grand Winters Hotel

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When it was built in 1907, the 89-room Winters Hotel was one of the finer hotels in the young city of Vancouver, boasting modern luxuries such as telephones and hot running water.

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Designed by the same architects who created the Woodward’s Department Store just down the street in Gastown, the once-glamorous, Edwardian era red brick building originally sported a large granite entryway, cast iron ground-floor columns and an intricate wooden bar.

The building will now be demolished after a devastating fire Monday. Initially built to offer high-end rooms to seasonal workers such as loggers and fishermen, the hotel most recently had been home to 71 vulnerable Downtown Eastside residents living in bare-bones single rooms, with shared bathrooms and no cooking facilities.

With a dearth of affordable housing in Vancouver, the scramble is on to try to find replacement housing for these marginalized residents, along with 73 occupants of the neighboring Gastown Hotel, which was evacuated due to toxic smoke and water damage.

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“It’s a really diverse mix of folks” at the Winters Hotel, said Janice Abbott, CEO of Atira Property Managementwhich has leased the residential rooms from the hotel’s private owner since 2017.

“Some older tenants who have lived there for 15 or 20 years, some younger and newer tenants. They’re very typical of a tenant population of single-room-occupancy hotels, so definitely folks who struggle with substance use and some folks who struggle with mental wellness.”

Candice MacLaurin, who lived at the Winters with her two Shih Tzu dogs Suzie and Bitty, was out when the fire started at 11 am on Monday, but arrived home to see the building covered in smoke and flames. Her de ella ex-boyfriend de ella rescued her two dogs, but could n’t save his black lab Justice who broke free while they were fleeing the fire and, terrified, ran back into the building.

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MacLaurin is grateful to have her dogs, since she lost almost everything else.

“My entire entire room is gone,” she said, while standing outside a temporary shelter where many hotel residents are staying.

Her first night in the shelter was OK, MacLaurin said, because “we all know each other,” but she’s hopeful Atira will find her new housing soon — something better than the Winters, where she said there were only three or four usable showers for the 71 residents.

The cause of the fire, which broke out in a second-floor residential room, is still under investigation, said Vancouver Fire Chief Karen Fry. Arson hasn’t yet been ruled out in the blaze, which quickly grew out of control. Six people had to be rescued, and five were taken to hospital, including one who jumped from an upper-floor window.

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“I think when I look back at everything that occurred Monday,” said Fry, “the city that came together as a whole to look after our occupants and residents, is truly remarkable.”

Indeed, Abbott said there was a “huge rally” from other tenants, staff, first-responders and the business community to get people and their pets out of the burning hotel.

“It was really awesome to see people coming together like that, in the aid of others,” Abbott said. “It was both incredibly chaotic and also kind of amazing.”

Donations of food, clothing and household items have been pouring into Atira’s Bette’s Boutiquewhere DTES residents can “shop” for free.

“We got lots of clothes, we got lots of pet food and supplies for pets,” Abbott said. “I was up there (Tuesday) morning and we were making sandwiches and making sure there’s food out.”

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Some displaced tenants are sleeping on mattresses in common rooms of some neighboring hotels in Gastown, while the nearby Japanese Language School offered its gym to evacuates.

Abbott, who accompanied some older residents to the shelter on Monday night, said they appeared to be in shock.

“I think the reality of this is going to set in over the next couple of days. And the priority now, in addition to identifying long-term housing options for everyone, is going to be to do our best to support people’s mental wellness.”

A couple of older Winters tenants were given permanent rooms late Monday in Atira’s nearby Sorella Housing for Women, and the agency will work with the city, BC Housing and other housing providers to find spaces for rest of the hotel residents.

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It isn’t clear how long it will be before the Gastown Hotel is safe for its 73 residents to return, but there were dehumidifiers and air-quality filtration systems running in the building on Tuesday, said Dale McMann, vice-president of operations with BCHousing.

The 144 rooms in the Winters and Gastown hotels are among an estimated 7,000 SRO rooms in Vancouver, which are generally run down and in dire need of replacement, Mayor Kennedy Stewart said.

This is a far cry from the glory days of the Winters Hotel, which in 1909 was advertised in The Vancouver Province as “the best family and commercial hotel in Vancouver.”

The newspaper reported in 1906 it would cost $45,000 to build the hotel, which was named after the original owner Mrs. AM Winters; before Monday’s fire, the building was valued at $15 million.

— With research by Postmedia News librarian Carolyn Soltau

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