Firefighters battle blaze in vacant building on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside

Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services is working to extinguish a fire in an abandoned building in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside neighbourhood.

The fire broke out Tuesday afternoon at 175 East Hastings Street, which formerly housed a community church known for providing services to Downtown Eastside residents, including servinghundreds of meals a day.

The building has been vacant and boarded up since a previous fire that was later deemed an arson destroyed the two-storey building on July 6.

Matthew Trudeau, a spokesperson for Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services, said they received multiple calls around 12:08 p.m. reporting smoke coming from the roof of the building.

"We immediately set up defensive master streams and started applying large volumes of water. We quickly got the flames and smoke under control."

Trudeau said there have been no reports of any injuries, and they don't believe anyone was in the building when the fire broke out.

The fire was contained to the Street Church building and another two-storey building next door.

While it did not spread to the adjacent Maple Hotel, residents of the Maple have been temporarily evacuated and were offered shelter in the nearby Carnegie Community Centre.

Jesse Werbecky, a resident of Maple, said being displaced for the second time in four months has exhausted him.

"I've got no place, no plan . . .it's gonna hit us hard, and I'm worn out."

Trudeau said there was no heat or smoke damage to the Maple building, and residents were expected to be able to return later Tuesday afternoon.

The Balmoral Hotel, which sits on the other side of the two damaged buildings, is currently unoccupied and due to be demolished.

"Our crews are still going to be on scene ensuring that this is put out and making sure that our investigators have enough time to access the scene," said Trudeau.

Hastings Street remains shut down between Columbia and Main Street as firefighters ensure the last of the smoke is dissipating.

The cause of the fire is unknown.