Residents of a Victoria housing complex damaged by a massive fire on Friday say the tenants inside the suite where the blaze started were the subject of countless complaints, and in the process of being evicted.
Two dogs died and a number of suites were destroyed after a fire broke out at Evergreen Terrace, formerly known as Blanshard Court, on Hillside Avenue around 3 a.m. on Friday.
Ten units were affected in total, nine of which were occupied, displacing dozens of people.
One woman who watched in horror as her neighbours’ homes shot up in flames says she saw the initial fireball followed by an explosion coming from suite 829 – a suite known at the complex for the wrong reasons, including drug-related issues.
“They moved in about three months ago and it’s been non-stop chaos since the day they moved in,” said Lesa Vella.
According to neighbours, the tenants – a couple and two teenagers – were the subject of dozens of complaints to BC Housing, which owns the complex.
Resident Jackie Smith said she wrote a letter to BC Housing about the tenants at one point.
Smith and her two-year-old live a few doors down from the suite, but the fire has since forced them into a hotel.
“We’re going to find somewhere else hopefully,” she said, adding she doesn’t want to move back to Evergreen Terrace.
Neighbours told CTV News the tenants in question were in the process of being evicted by BC Housing, but the agency would not confirm that.
Fire investigators so far haven’t been able to get inside to find out if neighbours’ suspicions are true because a structural engineer has yet to give the green light.
“We don’t know the conditions within the suite, so a large amount of the physical evidence may have been destroyed given the intensity of the fire,” said Deputy Fire Chief Dan Atkinson.
As for Smith and the other seven families displaced by the fire, BC Housing says it is working on finding them a new home in time for the holidays.
