WATCH ABOVE: Apartment building collapses from the blaze.

A massive fire in New Westminster has destroyed an apartment building located at 4th Avenue and Ash Street, leaving dozens of people homeless.

Crews from across Metro Vancouver were called in to fight the blaze, which appears to have started in a second-floor unit of the three-storey building.

It is not known if alarms were activated inside the building. New Westminster Deputy Fire Chief John Hatch said the first emergency calls came from residents in the building across the street.

The fire broke out at about 1:30 a.m. and quickly spread. Some people walking outside saw the flames and ran in to the building to alert the residents inside.

READ MORE: New Westminster residents called heroes for rescuing neighbours during fire

“I haven’t had reports of anybody missing,” said Hatch. “We’ve evacuated the building, we’ve got the residents of the building, the occupants of the building at the local community centre now. Our fire investigators and police are working with them to identify if there were occupants, how many people were in their suites, or if there was anybody away on vacation, etc.”

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Police are asking everyone evacuated from the scene to go to Centennial Lodge in Queens Park.

New Westminster Police say one man was taken to hospital with chest pains. Residents tell Global News many elderly people live in the building and were assisted by other residents in evacuating when the fire started.

One resident told Global News he was not able to save any belongings. “My grandmother always told me to put my keys, my wallet and my phone all in the same place when I go to sleep,” he said. “And so I listened to that for 30 years and I got it. So I got that.”

Another resident said he was in bed asleep when he heard people on the floor below him yelling ‘fire! fire!’. “I thought it was a false alarm, so I opened my door and the hallway was full of smoke,” he said.

One of the fire department’s biggest concerns was that the fire was going to spread to the neighbouring wooden structures. “We did shut the power down in the building on the north side,” said Hatch. “And we did evacuate that building as well and they were put in buses and taken to our community centre.” He added that he does not know of any damage to neighbouring buildings from the fire itself, but there may be smoke damage.

It is not known how the fire started.

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“From what I saw when I first arrived on scene, when I did my size-up, we had heavy smoke coming from the roof sockets, and heavy smoke that was in the front side of the building on front lobby entrance,” said Hatch. “That told me that it travelled very quickly somehow, either through the floor joist or other areas, vents, in the building. I’m not sure how the fire started.”

ROAD CLOSURES:

There are sections on 4th Avenue and Ash Street closed off, and 8th Street and 6th Street between 5th Avenue and 3rd Avenue is completely closed. There is also limited visibility in the area due to the heavy smoke.

HOW TO HELP:

On Sunday morning from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m., Surrey-based Kary Movers Ltd. will open their storage warehouse for the public to drop off clothing and household items for the victims of the New Westminster fire. The warehouse is located at 11125 124 street in Surrey, just over the Pattullo Bridge.

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Arrangements will be made with New Westminster emergency services and the local Red Cross for victims to get access to donations when they need them.

More information can be obtained by contacting James@karymovers.com, calling James directly at 778-908-2811, or calling the Kary Movers Ltd. office between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday thru Sunday.

GALLERY:

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