No one injured after fire and explosion near Granville Bridge in Vancouver

No one was injured after an explosion near the Granville Bridge in Vancouver sent concrete flying and damaged nearby vehicles.

Vancouver Fire Rescue crews were calledtoa vehicle fire and explosion at about 3 p.m.at the bridge and Pacific Street,near the spinning chandelier.

Although the blast blew up large chunks of concrete and did "a fair amount of damage" to adjacent vehicles, VFRS spokespersonJonathan Gormicksaid no one was injured and the incident is not believed to be malicious in nature.

It appears the explosion and fire are connected to an undergroundutility vault which might house electrical, natural gas ortelecommunications equipment,Gormick said.

Some of the concrete debris thrown into the air by the explosion was "three feet by four feet by eight inches thick," Gormicksaid.

"You can imagine how much that weighs and the amount of energy it takes to move one of those. It'sfortunate no one was right near the explosion point."

Gormicksaid the location of the blast did not disrupt traffic too much, but traffic on Granville Street was blocked between Pacific Street and Beach Avenueand eastbound traffic on Pacific Street wasalso blocked as crews worked.

Fire crews areadvisingpeople to avoid the area.

BC Hydro saidit has received reports of black smoke and a large explosion in the area. A spokesperson said there is underground infrastructure in the area butno substation nearby.

The spokesperson said a crew has been dispatched and should be on site shortly to investigate. He added no customers are reporting outages in the area.

Vancouver police tweetedits officers were also on scene and says delays are expected. Gormick said FortisBC crews are also on scene.

Gormick said it's not certain the fire and explosion are connected but "it's really hard to imagine that they weren't."