It took 17 hours to finally extinguish the ‘challenging’ egg carton fire at the CKF factory on Thursday, May 28. But in the end, minimal damage was done to the premises of one of Langley City’s largest companies, and everything was back up and running in three days.
Firefighters were called to the factory on 200 Street and 57 Avenue around 11:30 a.m. to respond to a fire that had started in compressed egg cartons and apple holding containers.
According to City fire chief Rory Thompson, the sprinklers were activated and kept the fire from getting out of control. But the white smoke caused zero visibility for firefighters going into the factory.
One City firefighter fell and injured his shoulder and a Township firefighter hurt his knee battling the blaze. Both were taken to hospital.
The pallets of egg cartons were five metres high and many more metres deep into the building, so once water got onto them, it became a soggy mess to slog through, said Thompson.
Fire crews worked on pulling it all apart to make sure there were no hot spots. They were on the scene until 4 a.m. the next day.
City fire crews said employees did a great job of evacuating calmly and sprinklers kept the fire from spreading to the plant’s machinery. With two restoration companies working diligently, that portion of CKF was up and running three days after the fire.