Woman found dead at Hastings Street encampment: VPD

A woman was found dead on Hastings Street on Sunday after a fire was extinguished in a tent, one of three in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside in the past couple of days.

The first fire in the 400-block of East Hastings Street shortly before midnight Saturday involved a tent with two large propane tanks, said Vancouver Fire Rescue Services Chief Karen Fry.

Fire crews were told “bangs and pops” were heard in the area before they arrived. That blaze is being investigated as suspicious, said Vancouver Fire spokesman Capt. Matt Trudeau. A building and a sign were damaged but no injuries were reported.

VPD Const. Tania Visintin said the cause of death in the second fire, which occurred in the 100-block of East Hastings, is still being investigated, but early indications are the woman died before the fire started. Fire investigators are treating that blaze as accidental.

Trudeau said someone appears to have put out the fire with an extinguisher before fire crews got there. He said the woman’s injuries were unrelated to the fire and her death “appears to be a separate matter.”