No one injured after fire and explosion near Granville Bridge in Vancouver - Action News
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No one injured after fire and explosion near Granville Bridge in Vancouver

No one was injured after an explosion near the Granville Bridge in Vancouver sent concrete flying and damaged nearby vehicles.

Explosion and fire appear connected to an underground utility vault, Vancouver Fire Rescue Services says

A car burns near the entrance to one of the buildings that make up the Vancouver House condo, retail and office development near the Granville Bridge in Vancouver. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)

No one was injured after an explosion near the Granville Bridge in Vancouver sent concrete flying and damaged nearby vehicles.

Vancouver Fire Rescue crews were calledtoa vehicle fire and explosion at about 3 p.m.at the bridge and Pacific Street,near the spinning chandelier.

Although the blast blew up large chunks of concrete and did "a fair amount of damage" to adjacent vehicles, VFRS spokespersonJonathan Gormicksaid no one was injured and the incident is not believed to be malicious in nature.

It appears the explosion and fire are connected to an undergroundutility vault which might house electrical, natural gas ortelecommunications equipment,Gormick said.

Some of the concrete debris thrown into the air by the explosion was "three feet by four feet by eight inches thick," Gormicksaid.

"You can imagine how much that weighs and the amount of energy it takes to move one of those. It'sfortunate no one was right near the explosion point."

Firefighters arrive on scene to attend reports of a vehicle fire and explosion near the Granville Bridge. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)
Emergency crews attend the scene of an explosion and fire near the intersection of Pacific and Granville Street in Vancouver on Tuesday. (Maggie MacPherson/CBC)

Gormicksaid the location of the blast did not disrupt traffic too much, but traffic on Granville Street was blocked between Pacific Street and Beach Avenueand eastbound traffic on Pacific Street wasalso blocked as crews worked.

Fire crews areadvisingpeople to avoid the area.

Smoke rises from the ground near the entrance to one of the buildings that make up the Vancouver House condo, retail and office development. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press)

BC Hydro saidit has received reports of black smoke and a large explosion in the area. A spokesperson said there is underground infrastructure in the area butno substation nearby.

The spokesperson said a crew has been dispatched and should be on site shortly to investigate. He added no customers are reporting outages in the area.

A Vancouver Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson said no one was injured. (Maggie MacPherson/CBC)

Vancouver police tweetedits officers were also on scene and says delays are expected. Gormick said FortisBC crews are also on scene.

Gormick said it's not certain the fire and explosion are connected but "it's really hard to imagine that they weren't."

Corrections

  • An earlier version of this story said the fire and explosion occurred near Canada House. In fact, the condo, retail and office development is known as Vancouver House.
    Jan 05, 2021 8:12 PM PT

With files from Cory Correia and Canadian Press