It took nearly a full day for Langley City and Township firefighters to douse a stubborn smoldering fire at CKF Inc. on Production Way.
City firefighters responded to the fire at around 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, said City fire chief Rory Thompson.
“There was a considerable amount of smoke,†he said of the fire near Fraser Highway.
The fire was in the back of the large industrial building, and the complexity and size of the fire quickly led the City to go to three alarms.
That brought in some Township crews to lend a hand.
In total, eight engines, several other vehicles, and 52 firefighters were deployed to deal with the fire.
The actual fire didn’t do too much damage to the building.
“We were fortunate because the sprinkler system really held the fire in check for us,†said Thompson.
However, the building was full of pallets of thousands of cardboard egg cartons. The fire had gotten into the cartons and the pallets.
Between the fire and the water, the cartons were destroyed, and the pallets collapsed, leaving piles of debris five to six feet high.
Firefighters had to fight their way through the mess to lay hose lines and get at the last remnants of the fire.
Two firefighters were hospitalized, with a City firefighter falling and injuring his shoulder, and a Township firefighter who hurt his knee.
Firefighters brought a lot of bottled water for crews and had to work in shifts, taking breaks to hydrate after fighting the fire on a day when temperatures hit the high 20s.
“Pretty tired, that’s for sure,†Thompson said of how the crews felt after the fire was out.
Fire crews didn’t leave the scene until 4 a.m. on Friday.
Investigators were looking through the scene Friday to try to determine the cause.
City firefighters have had training with what are called “large box†fires, and they recently did a command and control training exercise in concert with the Langley Township firefighters. Township and City firefighters frequently work together on larger fires or cover for one another when crews are very busy.