Still no sign of man inside fire-ravaged hoarding house

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Still no sign of man inside fire-ravaged hoarding house
Heavy equipment brought in to rip off the roof
Sonia Aslam/Kate Webb Oct 09, 2011 21:37:42 PM
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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - Firefighters say they are giving up the search overnight for a man who may still be inside a hoarder home that went up in flames early Sunday morning.

The two-alarm fire broke out at Willow Street and West 23rd Avenue at 3 a.m. Capt. Gabe Roder with Vancouver Fire and Rescue says by Sunday evening they still had not been able to contact the woman who owns the home or her son, who may have been living there infrequently.

Battalion Chief Blair Franklin says the home was so full of debris when firefighters arrived that they couldn't search for anyone inside.

"We've encountered hoarding before, but this is an extreme case," he tells News1130. "There is no access to the interior of the building at all.  You have to climb and crawl over debris."

Once the fire was put out, engineers were brought in to check the home's stability, and by early afternoon a small excavator was brought in to rip the roof off so crews could enter.

Capt. Roder says the search will resume Monday morning.

"We're dealing with a home that's had a tremendous amount of fire damage, and piece by piece we'll go through it, and we'll do the best that we can to hopefully not find anybody," Roder says.

Some people who live in the area have dubbed the home "the haunted house" because neighbours rarely saw the owner.

One neighbour, Wendy, has lived in the area for 11 years and says she's heard some very strange stories. She adds that some people even phoned the city to complain "over, over and over again [that it's] a fire hazard."

"They called the city, they called the fire department, but maybe because the outside was kept nice, nothing was done," she says.

She heard the original homeowner was an elderly woman who now lives in a care facility and wanted her son to preserve the home's contents until she died.

Another neighbour, Steve, says the home has been filled from top to bottom with junk for decades and it's very worrisome.

"Our houses are very close to each other and if the fire goes... a fire trap it was always," he says.

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The dangers of hoarding

Capt. Roder says hoarding, which is a serious pathological condition, poses major risks to human health.

"A person who hoards, there is a tremendous amount of danger to it just based on the fact that... you're limiting your mobility within that house," he explains. "Secondly, if you're asking for emergency services to come in and help you if there's something going on, it limits our ability to go into this house."

"We could not enter this home last night. This house was so full of stuff that we felt that it was dangerous for our members to go into the house."

He says sanitation can also be an issue, especially for neighbours.

"The other big concern for hoarders or for hoarding, especially if you live in an apartment-type complex... is the issue with rodents and possibly bedbugs and that spreading to all the other homes," he says.

Don Collett, a clinical counsellor in Vancouver who specializes in hoarding, says hoarders are often embarassed about their homes, so they can be very secretive.

He says studies show that about one in 20 people suffer from the compulsive disorder, and those numbers may be higher in places like the Downtown Eastside, where mental illness is more prevalent.

"Often it's because of trauma in childhood or a profound loss in life that they respond to in this way, and so if you can get to the bottom of that and have that continuing conversation with them about things like that, it can really make a difference," he explains.

"The key is to be compassionate and to realize that they're really attached to these things. They're so attached to these objects that it's almost like they're people to them, so you have to be really sensitive to that."

He encourages neighbours to report hoarding behaviour to the city inspector, and those who have the disorder to seek professional help.

The International OCD Foundation Hoarding Centre has online information and resources for those who need them.

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Firefighters had to tear off the roof of this Vancouver home at Willow St. and West 23rd Ave. in order to enter after two-alarm fire broke out at 3 a.m. Sunday

A two-alarm fire broke out at Willow Street and West 23rd Avenue at 3 a.m. Sunday

Firefighters had to tear off the roof of this Vancouver home at Willow St. and West 23rd Ave. in order to enter after two-alarm fire broke out at 3 a.m. Sunday.

Firefighters had to tear off the roof of this Vancouver home at Willow St. and West 23rd Ave. in order to enter after two-alarm fire broke out at 3 a.m. Sunday

Firefighters attend to a two-alarm fire at Willow St. and West 23rd Ave

Firefighters had to tear off the roof of this Vancouver home at Willow St. and West 23rd Ave. in order to enter after two-alarm fire broke out at 3 a.m. Sund