4 taken to hospital, 4 homes destroyed in 'suspicious' Port Moody fire: police

The residents of four Port Moody, B.C., homes won't be able to return for "quite some time" after a large fire that police regard as suspicious sent four people to hospital early Monday.

The fire broke out shortly after 4:30 a.m. PT in the Heritage Woods area of the Metro Vancouver city and quickly engulfed four units in two townhouses, according to Port Moody Fire Rescue Chief Darcey O'Riordan.

Crews, including an off-duty Surrey firefighter who lives in the block, rescued three people off a balcony and evacuated dozens more from several neighbouring units as a precaution, he said.

"The victims had some smoke inhalation and were transported to hospital along with the Surrey firefighter," said O'Riordan. "As I understand it, everyone's been released from hospital now."

The fire was so hot that radiant heat melted vinyl siding on houses across the street, he said, adding that crews from Coquitlam also helped evacuate people and pets.

Major crime detectives are currently on scene investigating the fire, said Port Moody Police Const. Sam Zacharias in a statement Monday morning.

"Initial information suggests this fire may be suspicious in nature," he said.

The investigation is still in its early stages, Zacharias said in a follow-up email to CBC News, declining to provide further information on why police believed the fire could be suspicious.

Residents of the neighbouring units have since been able to return, but the two townhomes in question won't be habitable for the foreseable future, according to O'Riordan. 

"There is significant fire damage," he said. "I would think that [residents will] be displaced for quite some time while it's rebuilt."

Multiple pets were also rescued, including two cats, iguanas and a guinea pig, said O'Riordan, but several others may still be missing.

'Worst nightmare'

A veterinarian and her two teenage sons are among the people who escaped "with literally the clothes they had on and nothing else," according to the Vancouver clinic where she works and a GoFundMe set up to support the family.

Some of Dr. Seantry Dean's family's animals are in critical condition or missing, according to a Facebook message by the North West Nuclear Medicine for Animals clinic posted on Monday.

Dean "experienced every mother's worst nightmare, trying to round up the kids and the animals to escape a massive fire," wrote colleague Karen Harvey, another veterinarian at the clinic, in a GoFundMe linked to the post. 

"Thankfully, she and the kids got out but a few animals were not as lucky."

One of their pets, a cat named Mittens, was rescued and treated for smoke inhalation, but the family hasn't heard of the fates of other pets, wrote Harvey.

Harvey and the clinic did not respond to requests for comment, but an automatic reply from the clinic's email said it was temporarily closed because Dean was "severely affected by a devastating apartment fire."