There was plenty of second-guessing in Langley today over a fire at a seniors’ complex yesterday that claimed an elderly man’s life.
The fire was put out quickly, but not before thick smoke filled much of the complex, overcoming more than half a dozen seniors.
Though the blaze was put out in minutes, several suites in a Langley apartment building are badly damaged, and today investigators went through the ashes to figure out just why it occurred.
Meantime, seniors and the disabled who lived there came back to see if they could return.
“We got told that there was a good chance that we were going to get in today, but it does not look like it now,” said building resident Stephen Barnes.
The fire happened 9:30 Wednesday morning while many residents were eating breakfast.
Black smoke filled the hallways from ceiling to floor, and several seniors were rescued from their balconies.
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Ten people were sent to hospital. One critical patient spent the night in a hyperbaric chamber, but is now is ok.
A man in his 80s died. He was found just outside his second floor apartment suite where the fire started.
“He was banging on doors saying get out, get out, as he went along,” building resident Mary Ross told Global News. “And then I think he probably dropped. He probably couldn’t handle it all the smoke and banging on doors.”
Today, some residents are speculating about the cause of Wednesday’s fire in the building, which houses more than a hundred people and is run by the Lions Senior Citizen Housing Society.
Residents say the elderly man who died was on oxygen.
“From how it was described, how the windows blew out, and then the flames and the smoke came out,” says resident Terry O’Neil. “I just surmise something happened during the night. His oxygen came lose or something and a spark or something was enough to set it off.”
Global News was told smoke alarms worked, but went off so regularly some people ignored them, and because it is an older building, it did not have a sprinkler system.
“Had the building been sprinkled, I think that the sprinklers would have helped to control the fire,” says Langley Fire Chief Rory Thompson. “What effect it would have had on the victims is speculatory.”
But when it comes to the possibility of retrofitting such older buildings with modern sprinkler systems, Langley mayor says there are many things to consider.
“The reality is to retrofit an older building, you displace people, it is very expensive and these are affordable living units, so by spending all that extra money, you change the affordability threshold,” says Fassbender. “So there are a lot of issues like that. But none of them should be avoided. We need to talk about each and every one of them.”
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