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Health28 outlets ran this2 min read

Yu Yung Wang charged with arson in 2020 Burnaby Hospital fire

An Alberta man faces charges for a fire that led to the emergency department's closure and a COVID-19 outbreak.

AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made

Published Updated
The fire broke out on the second floor of the north wing at Burnaby Hospital on Nov. 15, 2020. (Ryan Stelting/CBC)

What this story says

  • Yu Yung Wang, 29, has been charged with arson and disregard for human life.
  • The charges relate to a fire at Burnaby Hospital on November 15-16, 2020.
  • The fire caused the hospital's emergency department to close.
  • Health officials stated the fire contributed to a deadly COVID-19 outbreak at the hospital.

Who covered it

Left 67%(18)Centre 33%(9)Right 0%(0)

Percentages are shares of the 27 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 1 of the 28 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .

Trust

86/100

Craft

87/100

Hype

12/100

28 sources · methodology

Missing from the right

None of the 27 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated right.

A reader who follows the right would not have seen this. We report the absence rather than explain it: outlets choose what to cover for many reasons, and we have no evidence about which one applies here.

A 29-year-old Alberta man, Yu Yung Wang, has been charged with arson and disregard for human life in connection with a fire at Burnaby Hospital in 2020. The British Columbia Prosecution Service approved the charge on September 8, 2026. The fire occurred on the night of November 15-16, 2020. It led to the closure of the hospital's emergency department and, according to health officials, contributed to a deadly COVID-19 outbreak. Wang is currently in custody in Alberta on unrelated charges. Burnaby RCMP identified a suspect who had moved to Alberta in the summer of 2023, following a six-year investigation involving multiple police agencies.

Disagreement on investigation timeline

City News reported that the charges came after a six-year investigation involving police from multiple agencies in Alberta. In contrast, CBC News stated that RCMP identified a suspect who had moved to Alberta in the summer of 2023, without specifying the total length of the investigation.

What the coverage left out

No right-rated reports covered this story. The left-rated and centre-rated reports did not mention the specific date the fire occurred, only that it was in November 2020. None of the reports specified the exact date the emergency department closed or the number of deaths attributed to the COVID-19 outbreak that followed the fire.

Tags:#Arson#BurnabyHospital#HealthCare#COVID19#BCNews#Alberta

Coverage settled. We checked this 108 times and stopped on 22 Sept 2026, 20:01. The figures above are what it finished at.

How other outlets pictured it

Which photograph to run is each newsroom’s own choice. The leaning beside a name is that outlet’s published rating, not a claim that the pictures divide along it. Every picture is shown from the outlet’s own server and links to the article it ran in.

Yu Yung Wang charged with arson in 2020 Burnaby Hospital fire
City NewsCentre
Yu Yung Wang charged with arson in 2020 Burnaby Hospital fire
Aldergrove StarLeft

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

18 rated outlets

  • The left-leaning outlets reported that Yu Yung Wang, 29, was charged with arson, disregard for human life, in connection with a 2020 fire at Burnaby Hospital. The charge was laid by the B.C. Prosecution Service. Wang is in custody in Alberta on unrelated charges.
  • CBC News and Aldergrove Star reported that the fire contributed to a deadly COVID-19 outbreak at the hospital. Fraser Health stated the fire led to the emergency room's closure and patient transfers, which they said aided COVID-19 spread.
  • Several digests noted that police identified a suspect in summer 2023 and worked with agencies in Alberta. Global News mentioned a video released by Burnaby RCMP of the arson suspect.

Centre

9 rated outlets

  • Two centre-rated reports focused on the charge of arson against Yu Yung Wang in connection with the 2020 Burnaby Hospital fire. Both reports mentioned Wang's age as 29 and that he is from Alberta. They stated that the B.C. Prosecution Service approved the charge of arson and disregard for human life. The centre-rated reports also noted that Wang is in custody in Alberta on unrelated charges and that the investigation involved police from multiple agencies over six years.

Right

0 rated outlets

No outlet rated right ran this story. We watched the coverage until it stopped changing, and none appeared.

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover Yu Yung Wang charged with arson in 2020 Burnaby Hospital fire?
Of the 27 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 67% are rated left, 33% are rated centre, 0% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 28. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
Is Yu Yung Wang charged with arson in 2020 Burnaby Hospital fire left or right?
Neither side dominates it. Of the 27 rated outlets on this story, 67% are rated left, 33% are rated centre, 0% are rated right, and no side holds the 70% this site would want before calling a field one-sided. A story is not left or right in any case; the outlets that carried it are what carry ratings.
Is the coverage of Yu Yung Wang charged with arson in 2020 Burnaby Hospital fire biased?
Yu Yung Wang charged with arson in 2020 Burnaby Hospital fire is one event reported by 28 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
Which side is not reporting Yu Yung Wang charged with arson in 2020 Burnaby Hospital fire?
When we first saw this story, outlets rated right had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
Which outlets covered Yu Yung Wang charged with arson in 2020 Burnaby Hospital fire?
28 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
Who has been charged in connection with the Burnaby Hospital fire?
Yu Yung Wang, a 29-year-old man from Alberta, has been charged with arson and disregard for human life. The charges were approved by the B.C. Prosecution Service on September 8, 2026.
When did the fire at Burnaby Hospital occur?
The fire at Burnaby Hospital took place on the night of November 15-16, 2020. The B.C. Prosecution Service approved the arson charge on September 8, 2026, following an investigation.
What were the consequences of the Burnaby Hospital fire?
The fire led to the closure of the hospital's emergency department. Health officials stated that the incident contributed to a deadly COVID-19 outbreak at the hospital, which had a significant impact on the community and the healthcare system.

Read it at the source

29 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.

Left

19
Show 11 more

Centre

9
Show 1 more

Right

0

No outlet in this group ran the story.

Not rated

1

How did this read?

About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.

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