METRO VANCOUVER – A massive fire that destroyed a grocery store in Fort Langley Tuesday morning was so powerful it threatened to take out a number of neighbouring buildings, officials say.
"It’s very close to other buildings. Fort Langley is built very tightly together," Assistant Fire Chief Bruce Ferguson said in a phone interview. "About two-thirds of our resources were focused on extinguishing the fire and the other third was on protecting the other buildings."
Luckily, said Ferguson, the only damage suffered by neighbouring buildings was some heat damage, such as melted plastic signs.
No one was in the building at the time of the fire.
Ferguson said the fire department was called to the scene at 5:30 a.m. by a municipal worker who spotted the fire while out sanding roads.
The first fire crew was on the scene seven minutes later and before long a total of 50 firefighters from five of the township’s seven halls were battling the blaze.
Ferguson said, as of 10:30 a.m., the fire was under control but not completely extinguished.
"The roof’s caved in and the walls have collapsed," he said. "Now they’re putting out the spot fires."
Authorities don’t know what caused the fire but Ferguson said the worker who spotted the fire, and the first crew on the scene, said it appeared to have started in the building’s northeast corner.
Ferguson said the damage caused by the fire will easily exceed a million dollars.
"It would definitely be over a million dollars for sure but I’m not sure what kind of stock value is in the building," he said. "That adds to the dollar loss as well."
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