Officer set on fire in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, police say - BC | Globalnews.ca (2025)

A man is in jail after allegedly setting one Vancouver police officer on fire and singeing a second in the city’s Downtown Eastside on Thursday.

“It definitely is enraging to our members, this comes right on the heels of other assaults that happened not very long ago,” Vancouver police Const. Tania Visitntin said.

“The last one was an officer getting spat in the mouth with bloody saliva. The one before that was an officer in the same area, the Downtown Eastside, getting slashed in the leg while protecting the residents and the businesses in the area.”

Vancouver police said it happened just after 9 p.m. as the pair were patrolling the area as part of Task Force Barrage, an initiative to boost police presence in the area and crack down on organized crime.

When the officers tried to stop a man for jaywalking, the suspect fled, according to police.

The officers pursued, and while trying to arrest him, police allege “the man used a flammable substance to set the officers’ uniforms on fire, then continued to flee.”

One officer actually caught on fire, while the second got singe marks on their uniform, police said.

The officers called for backup, who arrested the man nearby.

The pair was able to extinguish the flames themselves. One was unhurt, while the other was treated by paramedics and is now recovering at home, according to police.

“Physically, they are doing OK, their physical injuries were very minimal, but as you can imagine, being set on fire while trying to protect those in the neighbourhood is obviously very psychologically damaging,” Visintin said.

The suspect, a 40-year-old Vancouver man, was treated for burns in hospital and remains in police custody. Police say they discovered he was wanted on a B.C.-wide warrant for 10 other offences.

Police are recommending multiple charges, including assaulting a police officer with a weapon, obstructing a police officer and breach of release conditions.

Downtown Eastside resident Les Kaczorowski told Global News he believes there is a greater sense of hostility in the neighbourhood between some people on the streets and police since Task Force Barrage got underway in February.

“Because the police are harassing us. They are harassing the homeless. All the marginalized people are getting really harassed by the police,” he said.

“For so long, they just ignored it right and it probably did get way out of hand. But now they are just trying to clean it all up and fast, and it’s just too much too soon.”

Vancouver City Councillor and former VPD officer Brian Montague called the incident “unacceptable and intolerable,” and described it as an example of why Task Force Barrge is needed.

But he said the city is limited in what it can do to improve public safety, and said senior levels of government are not doing enough.

“The police department and our first responders are one thing we can do as a municipality, but it is the provincial government and the federal government that really play a big role here when it comes to public safety,” he said.

“They need to step up and they need to do it now.”

Montague said the city wants to see both faster action on bail reform and more direction to Crown counsel when it comes to repeat violent offenders and more action from the province on addiction and housing issues.

EDITOR’S NOTE: A previous version of this story quoted police as saying two officers were set on fire. Police have since clarified that one officer was set on fire and a second had their uniform singed.