It didn’t take Langley City firefighters long Wednesday night to douse a fire at the Montana’s BBQ & Bar on the Langley Bypass.
A Langley RCMP officer passing by noticed flames coming from the roof and quickly alerted the restaurant as people inside began to smell smoke.
The restaurant was quickly evacuated as fire crews arrived.
Langley City Fire Department got the call at roughly 8:15 p.m. Nov. 2 about a fire involving the front facade of the roof area, explained Langley City fire chief Rory Thompson.
City crews responded with two engines, a ladder truck, and a rescue truck. In all, 19 City firefighters battled the blaze.
“When the crews first arrived there was an active fire showing at the front of the building, on the roof line,” Thompson said.
The fire appears to have originated near the neon sign at the front of the building and caused damage to the structure of the building in the roof area as well as water damage down into the restaurant seating area. No one appears to have been injured during the incident.
“Most of the fire damage was confined to the front facade of the building, up on the roof line,” Thompson reiterated. “There is some water and minor smoke damage to the interior of the restaurant.”
The restaurant is closed today (Nov. 3) as fire inspectors survey the damage.
Thompson wasn’t sure how many customers were inside the restaurant at the time of the blaze.
“When I got there, the place had been evacuated so I don’t really know whether or not they had customers… at the time,” Thompson said.
“We were there pretty quickly,” Thompson added, noting that it “probably took about 15 or 20 minutes” to extinguish the fire.
Firefighters got up the roof and use power tools to open up the facade area to get at the fire.