Massive fire at Langley restaurant leads to partial building collapse ...

Posted October 5, 2024 10:19 am.

Last Updated October 5, 2024 2:49 pm.

Excavators have arrived on the scene as fire crews continue to battle a raging fire at a restaurant in downtown Langley City.

The excavators started working to take down the building at 20559 Fraser Highway around 2 p.m.

Fire crews continue to battle a raging fire at a restaurant in downtown Langley City. (Submitted: Joere Estremadura)

As of noon Saturday, the front part of the building is down, and the side of the building is coming down. Crews are attacking from all sides of the building.

Fire crews continue to battle a raging fire at a restaurant in downtown Langley City. (Dean Recksiedler/1130 NewsImage)

Fire crews continue to battle a raging fire at a restaurant in downtown Langley City. (Angelyna Mintz/1130 NewsRadio Image)

City of Langley Fire Department Chief Scott Kennedy tells 1130 NewsRadio crews were called to the building shortly after 6:30 a.m. after a report of a small exterior fire.

On arrival, they found light smoke coming from various parts of the building but then located a “fairly significant fire” inside the building.

“My understanding is this may have started in sort of the back of the restaurant,” Kennedy said.

“That’s where we have found a large volume of fire. I can’t confirm that that was a starting point, because we still got to get in and do some investigations, but I can confirm that there was a large volume of fire in that area.”

Kennedy says the partial collapse of the building has forced fire crews to move back for safety.

“We have had several localized collapses, as we call them, due to the extent of the damage in there from the fire and the extent of the fire traveling through,” he said.

“We made the decision to pull the crews out and set up what we call a defensive role for exactly what happened. As it’s gone through, it becomes structural damage, it’s a structure, it’s an older building, and it collapses.”

He expects crews will be on scene for much of the day.

“Probably in the afternoon, once we get a little bit more of a handle on it, we’ll probably start taking down part of the building … and then crews will be on scene dealing with that for the next several hours,” he said.

Kennedy says there are a number of crews on scene — enough to be able to rotate them to keep them fresh.

“We have our career staff that was on duty this morning. We called in our fleet on-call staff. We’ve done what we call a full career call back, so we asked our career members to come back, and then we’ve invited our neighbors from Langley Township, who graciously came in and bought resources as well, and apparatus,” he said.

The Langley RCMP is blocking off a section of the roadway, and there are concerns the smoke contains toxic chemicals including asbestos.

“So we have a number of dedicated RCMP members here who are making the very unpopular decision of going around and telling people that they need to move back, but it is for their own safety,” Kennedy said.

“And people want to see what’s going on, and we understand that, but we want to keep them safe as well.”

Residents in the area are urged to keep their windows and doors closed and wear a face mask outdoors.

The fire has sent a large plume of thick black smoke into the skies above Langley. Callers to 1130 News Radio report haze as far as South Surrey.

(Submitted: Vlad Vinca)

There’s no word yet on how the fire started.

This is a developing story.

With files from Dean Recksiedler, Angelyna Mintz, Cole Schisler, and Maria Vinca.