A 68-year-old woman died in this east Vancouver house after a fire broke out early Thursday. (CBC)

Police are looking for a group of teenagers who they believe could be connected with five fires early Thursday in east Vancouver. A homicide investigation is under way after a senior citizen died in one of the blazes.

Vancouver police Const. Tim Fanning said investigators want to speak to the teens who were seen in the area some time before a fire broke out in a house at 2781 East 55th Avenue around 5:15 a.m.

A 68-year-old woman, her son, 39, and his wife, 35, were inside the home, police said. The younger couple escaped but the elderly woman was trapped in the basement.

Police are investigating five suspicious fires that broke out early Thursday morning in east Vancouver. (CBC)

The man, who was injured, tried to pull his mother out of the basement window but failed. Firefighters eventually removed her from the basement. She was taken to hospital but died of her injuries Thursday afternoon, Fanning said.

"Certainly we need to talk to that group that was here last night that congregated around the site of one of the fires. They are crucial to this investigation," Fanning said.

"As soon as this information gets out that someone has died as a result of one of these fires, we're hoping that somebody is going to come forward."

There were four other fires in the same neighbourhood and police believe someone deliberately set the blazes, Fanning said.

A fire was set in a portable toilet at East 50th Avenue and Kerr Street, some items were set ablaze in the 6700 block of Kerr Street, a hedge beside a house in the 6900 block of Lancaster Street was set on fire and a fire broke out behind a house under construction in the 2800 block of East 54th Avenue.

No one was injured in those blazes, police said.

Jack Ghag, who invested $300,000 into his house in the 2800 block of East 54th, said his property might have burned to the ground if not for a neighbour's help.

"If [the] neighbour didn't come, my house would have all [been destroyed by] the fire," he said.