Fire investigators are still poring over the site of a Langley City blaze that gutted one home and seriously damaged another.
The call came in to Langley City firefighters one minute before noon on May 11, said fire chief Rory Thompson.
“We were there in, I think, three minutes, 15 seconds,” Thompson said.
“Our truck was already on the road,” he added, as they had been at another call.
By the time they arrived at the house on 196A Street just off 53rd Avenue, they found the first house fully ablaze and the second also starting to burn.
The two houses were just 20 feet about and there may have been a cedar shed between them.
The fire was so intense that either the volume of flames bridge the gap, or the infrared energy was so intense it started a second fire, Thompson said.
“We employed some pretty heavy streams to bring it under control,” Thompson said.
They quickly escalated to a three-alarm fire and some Langley Township firefighters were called in to help. City and Township firefighters routinely assist one another on large fires.
There were four fire engines in total, with about 32 firefighters from both services there, said Thompson.
The first house suffered the most severe damage, and was largely gutted.
The second house suffered a lot of damage to its roof and attic areas, as well as water damage, said Thompson.
One thing that wasn’t damaged was a mallard nest in the back yard of the first house, Thompson said.
The owner told them about a nesting duck that had set up housekeeping near the back fence.
“It’s still there,” said Thompson. “It’s still on its eggs.”
On Thursday, firefighters and insurance officials were still looking into the cause of the fire.
No one was injured in the blaze.
