Building in Vancouver's historic Gastown up in flames

Forty firefighters were called to the scene of a three-alarm fire that engulfed several floors of an old building in Vancouver's Gastown on Tuesday morning.

Justin van Berckel awoke at around 5 a.m. to the sound of the century-old building's fire alarm blaring at 90 Alexander St.

"I'm thinking, 'not another drill' and I tried sleeping through it."

When van Berckel realized the fire was real, he fled the four-storey building with only the clothes on his back.

"The hall was just completely filled with smoke," he said.

Firefighters are trying to determine the cause of the blaze, but initial indications point to the building's ground-floor restaurant, Incendio Pizza.

The fire eventually spread from the ground floor to the third floor.

"Appreciate that this is a very old building," said fire department spokesman Capt. Gabe Roder. "There have been a lot of renovations done to it. It makes the job of fighting a fire a lot more difficult."

Roder said the building's residents were evacuated and while there were no injuries, there was a "substantial amount of damage."

Roder did not know the exact value of the damage but did point out that firefighters had to rip out walls to keep the fire from spreading further.

Emergency social services were called to help more than 20 residents find temporary housing.

Firefighters were unclear whether the building can be saved but said the restaurant was gutted.