Homemade fire screen ignites in east Vancouver apartment

A family was displaced early Wednesday morning after a homemade fire screen ignited in an east Vancouver apartment.

Firefighters were called to an active structure fire at the Heritage Green apartments at 3100 S.E. 168th Ave. around 3:45 a.m.

Engine 9 with the Vancouver Fire Department arrived a few minutes later and found a fire alarm and sprinklers going in a first-floor apartment, said Capt. Kevin Murray, VFD spokesman.

Sprinklers doused the flames by the time firefighters arrived, Murray said. Crews helped the family turn off the fire alarm and sprinklers.

Murray said the family had a fire Tuesday night but the flames got too big and broke the apartment’s glass fire screen. The family poured water on the fire to put it out.

Family members then made a temporary fire screen with combustible homemade materials, “which is not a good idea,” Murray said.

The early-morning fire caused an estimated $20,000 in damage to the apartment. There was minor water damage to a neighboring apartment, but no one else was affected by the fire, Murray said.

A crew from the Camas-Washougal Fire Department also responded to the fire but the call was canceled before it arrived.