Two days after a blaze destroyed a building in Langley City's downtown core, a fire in a homeless camp sent smoke high into the air from the wooded area behind the Langley Seniors Resources Society centre.
Langley City Fire Chief Scott Kennedy said the first reports to the fire department came in around 7:30 a.m. on Monday, Oct. 7, one describing "tons of smoke" coming from the forest and another advising there was smoke with a large tree on fire directly behind the centre, located at at 20605 51B Ave.
By the time crews located the blaze in the forest area, it had spread into the trees.
"It was starting to get into the forested area down there pretty good," Kennedy told the Langley Advance Times.
He described it it as a large homeless camp, estimating the size at "approximately 50 by 50 [metres]" but the occupants had fled the location before fire fighters arrived.
The blaze was extinguished in short order, with no injuries.
It came after fire crews from Langley City and Langley Township devoted most of Saturday, Oct. 5, to containing a fire that completely destroyed the building that housed the Viva Mexico Restaurant and several other businesses.
