Fire at historic industrial building in Vancouver considered 'suspicious': fire department

A large fire reported at a historic industrial building near Vancouver's False Creek on Tuesday night is being considered suspicious, Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services (VFRS) says.

A CBC reporter in the area says the blaze startedaround 9:45 p.m. PTat the First Avenue Plant at First Avenue and Cook Street, where Vancouver Mill Machinery Ltd. used to operate.

The building is located near the Olympic Village neighbourhood in southeast False Creek.

Multiple crews were seen responding to the fire on Tuesday night.

Vancouver Fire Chief Karen Fry said in a tweet that crews were on scene just after 10:20 p.m. PT.

Al Gregory, VFRS assistant chief of operations, told CBC News on Tuesday night that there were no injuries reported in the fire, which appeared to begin in the northeast corner of the building.

Gregory added that the warehouse appeared to be vacant, and the fire was extinguished around 10:45 p.m. PT.

On Wednesday morning, Gregory said the cause of the fire was still under investigation, but the blaze was considered "suspicious in nature."

"We don't have any clear definitive signs at this time. Right now, we can assume it was some debris in the building that caught onto part of the main structure of the building," Gregory said in an interview.

Gregory said squatters do often live in vacant buildings across the city, but VFRS hasn't confirmed whether anyone was living in the First Avenue Plant when it caught fire.

The fire comes a week after a string of fires were set in dumpsters and garbage cans in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and Chinatown neighbourhoods overnight.