Dozens homeless after Langley fire
Officials believe everyone able to escape second blaze in months at condo complex
Residents of an 80-unit condo complex in Langley City are homeless after a fast-moving fire tore through the building Sunday morning
Fire crews and RCMP continue to sift through the badly damaged upper floors of the building looking for casualties following the blaze that is believed to have started on the fourth floor.
“The flames were so severe so quickly,” said Geoffrey Holland, who lives on the fourth floor of the Paddington Station strata-title complex in the 5600-block 201A Street.
Residents were alerted at 10 a.m., when smoke was seen coming out of a fourth-floor unit.
When fire crews arrived they began to quickly work on the blaze, but Holland said because the fire was in the middle of the building they had a tough time getting to the problem spot.
It was a few minutes later that a bigger ladder truck was on scene that enabled firefighters to get to the flames, he said.
“If they had the ladder truck here immediately they may have been able to knock it down,” said Holland.
As the fire got into the roof, it became uncontrollable and began to spread to the other units. “Once it got into the roof it spread so fast,” he said.
Residents are expecting some grim news with the fire, smoke and water damage.
“I am quite sure we will never be able to return to that building again,” said Holland, who has fire insurance.
As residents stood helplessly watching the fire consume the building, Holland said local businesses brought food and hot soup to help feed those who were suddenly homeless.
Just a few months ago there was another fire on the third floor of the building and Holland said it was determined someone was using propane in a drug-cooking operation.
And he wondered if a similar situation happened Sunday as the fire was so intense so fast.
“In a building like this with a modern sprinkler system something like this should not have happened,” he said.
Many in the building escaped with only the clothes on their backs, some in bathrobes and pyjamas, some holding pets they managed to grab in their hasty exit of the building.
“I don’t know if everyone got out,” said Holland.
“They did take an elderly man off in a stretcher.”
Langley City Fire Chief Rory Thompson said a resident rescued from the top floor was taken to hospital for assessment and two firefighters were taken to hospital for smoke inhalation.
“As soon as the building is stabilized, we still have some active fire that’s showing itself here and there and as soon as we have that stabilized, we’ll be conducting a secondary survey of the building,” he said. “But we believe that there’s no occupants currently in the building.”
Thompson said 55 firefighters were attacking the flames Sunday afternoon.
Langley RCMP Cpl. Holly Largy said investigators will be looking at the possibility of a drug lab inside one of the units.
Langley resident Crysta Serne was driving by the building when she saw smoke and flame.
“The flames were 30 feet in the air,” she said.
“The building doesn’t look like it will be salvageable. It is so sad it happened so close to Christmas.”
Jason Nesbitt stood behind the police tape watching the fire and said he talked on the phone with a friend who lives in the building and found out she was at work. “It is so terrible,” he said. “A lot of people are crying, they are very distraught.”
A neighbouring building was also evacuated as smoke seeped into that structure.
Coast Mountain Bus Lines sent buses to transport the people evacuated from the building.
Emergency social-services workers were at the scene and Langley RCMP victim services also was called in to assist.