Fire destroys North Vancouver home, displacing 12

North Vancouver fire officials say residents won't be able to move back into their homes any time soon, after a fire severely damaged a building early Sunday morning.

Fire Chief Dan Pistilli said the fire began a little before 3 a.m. in the 400blockof RidgewayAvenue.

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"En route, it was quite obvious with the amount of smoke in the air that we had a substantial fire going," said Pistilli. "Crews arrived on scene, heavy smoke and flame had extended from the back of the house up into the roof area."

Resident Wendy Devinewas sleeping upstairs when the fire started.

"I don't know why I woke up, and I sawoutside and there was bigyellow flames and smoke. That's when I started shouting, and just told everybody, 'There's fire!' So I just grabbed my daughter and told my husband to grab the baby," said Devine.

"I just started banging on everyone's rooms."

Pistilli said11 or 12 people got out safely, and nobody was hurt.

"I'm just glad everyone's safe," said Devine, who added that she couldn't see, because she didn't have time to grab her glasses. She said her familyleft everything inside.

"Emergency Social Services will take care of the residents for the near future, then we'll have to take it from there," said Pistilli.

"I've seen places with worse damage than this that have been repaired, so we're hopeful the placecan be repaired," he said. "But not any time soon."

Investigators will inspectthe damaged house to determine the cause.Pistilli said it's too early to say how the fire started.