Residents recall Coquitlam apartment fire, worry about what's next

Around 100 people have been set up in temporary accommodations after fire tore through a rental apartment complex in Coquitlam, B.C., on Thursday morning.

Residents on Friday recalled the harrowing fire and wondered what may come next.

Zeinab Mohseni and her family lived above the unit where the fire started early Thursday morning.

She said she looked outside her window and saw "smoke from underground and it was really scary,"

Mohseni and her husband left with their children, banging on the doors of neighbours as they fled.

"I started to scream loudly, 'Get out, get out, run, it's a fire,'" she said

Eugene Tolander says he is grateful for neighbour Landon Phillips' composure after fire broke out in their Coquitlam, B.C., apartment complex. (Joel Ballard/CBC)

Landon Phillips said he didn't think there was an actual fire as there have been false alarms in the past. Then, "he heard people panicking."

"I looked outside the window and the flames [were] bursting up," he said.

He knew he had to get out, but not before calling a couple in the building, Tanya Carr and Eugene Tolander.

"This guy is our guardian angel right here," Carr said of Phillips. "He phoned us and got us awake and got us out before the smoke took us over."

By the time firefighters arrived, four units were already engulfed in flames.

Tolander and Carr lived near those units and had slept through the alarm. Tolander says there was smoke in their unit and he and Carr frantically grabbed some items and left.

He said he is grateful for their neighbour's composure amid the chaos.

"If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't have woken up," he said. "And if we had woken up, with all that smoke, forget it, we probably wouldn't have made it out. So thank you, Landon. You saved my life."

'Some of us have lost everything'

The building's residents have been forced to leave with help from the City of Coquitlam's emergency support services.

Residents have been provided clothing, food, daily essentials and temporary shelter at hotels around Metro Vancouver. Their accommodations are covered for six days.

In a statement, the City of Coquitlam confirmed around 100 residents were displaced by Thursday's fire. Many units were undamaged thanks to fire walls in the building.

"Pending engineering, safety and air quality assessments, we're hopeful that most residents will be back in their units soon," the statement said.

Phillips said some in the building are facing an uncertain future.

"Some of us have lost everything," Phillips said. "It's not good. And with housing prices the way they are, it's no joke. Some of us are capitally screwed. Where are we going to go?"

Mohseni's unit has been destroyed. The trauma, she says, is still fresh.

"We are so worried because I don't think that we can afford, with this expensive rent, to find any place," she said.