Multiple police, fire and ambulance crews converged on a residence in Langley early Friday evening after a rear deck collapsed, sending up to 40 people to hospital.
9-1-1 calls began flooding in to emergency responders at around 5:45 p.m. after the deck collapsed in the rear of the home at 26871 58th Ave. in the community of Aldergrove, where over 100 people had gathered for a wedding celebration.
RCMP tell Global News the injured range in age from a toddler under the age of two to the elderly.
Up to 20 of those patients are classified as having serious injuries, most involving lower extremity injuries such as broken legs.
Between 12 and 15 patients with minor injuries were driven to hospital by relatives. Those more seriously hurt were taken by ground ambulance, with one woman medivac’d to hospital by air ambulance.
At least one person is critically injured, possibly two. No fatalities have been reported.
WATCH: Deck collapse at Langley wedding sends dozens to hospital
Fraser Health told Global News numerous hospitals throughout the Lower Mainland were notified to prepare for an intake of patients.
Rinku Garcha, whose wedding the attendees were celebrating at the reception, said she was heartbroken the accident happened in the hours before her big day.
“I’m trying really hard not to cry,” she told Global News Friday. “It’s very hard now to know my family that means so much to me won’t be present on one of the biggest days of my life.”
Garcha said the collapse happened in a matter of seconds.
“All of a sudden it was like a mudslide,” she said. “Everyone was on the floor screaming and crying, people were on top of each other.”
Langley East MLA Rich Coleman arrived at the scene late Friday night to lend his support to his constituents, and said he was grateful there were no deaths.
“It sounds like everyone will heal,” he said. “There will be some broken bones, there’s no injuries that are life-threatening it appears, so I’m relieved of that.”
RCMP say they will hold the scene overnight, with inspectors to return Saturday morning.
With files from Sarah MacDonald
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