Coroners’ inquest into 2022 Winters Hotel fire

The BC Coroners Service is set to begin an inquest Monday to look into the deadly Winters Hotel fire that left two people dead in 2022.

The heritage building in Gastown, which was over 100 years old, was operating as an 89-room single-room occupancy (SRO) hotel for long-term tenants, when it was destroyed by a fire caused by unattended candles on Apr. 11, 2022.

Crews working to demolish the building discovered the bodies of 53-year-old Dennis Guay and 68-year-old Mary Ann Garlow inside the building days later.

It was determined by a preliminary investigation in 2022 that the sprinkler system at the Winters Hotel had been turned off days before the fire rendered the entire building unsafe and set for demolition. That was done after another fire just days prior, on April 8, 2022.

Following the fire, 71 people who lived in the building were displaced.

The province ordered the inquest to fully determine exactly how Guay and Garlow died, and then to make recommendations that could prevent similar tragedies in the future.

With files from Cole Schisler and Hana Mae Nassar.