Several people had to evacuate their homes due to an early morning fire at an Aldergrove forest products company.
Langley Township fire crews were at a structure fire in the 26900 block of Old Yale Road in Aldergrove all night.
Langley firefighters are at the scene of a Wednesday morning structure fire in Aldergrove in the 26900 block of Old Yale Road pic.twitter.com/2vI3CGEp8f
— Langley Advance Times (@LangleyTimes) August 30, 2023
The fire broke out overnight at Elykwood Forest Products and Manufacturing.
The RCMP was contacted about the fire at about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, shortly after the Township Fire Department was dispatched, said Langley RCMP Sgt. Barry Beales.
Additional fire halls were called out just after 9 a.m. to help personnel already on scene.
The fire department and RCMP will be doing investigations.
“But now we’re just waiting for it to cool down to get a fire investigator on site,” he said.
Old Yale Road was blocked off in the area for several hours Wednesday.
Two multi-family complexes and some houses were evacuated during the fire.
Langley firefighters were called to the scene of a Wednesday morning structure fire in Aldergrove in the 26900 block of Old Yale Road. Video by Haillie Neiszner. pic.twitter.com/nvTDlKqPFD
— Langley Advance Times (@LangleyTimes) August 30, 2023
The home of one of the evacuees, Laurie Siddall, is “extremely close” to the business. She said at around midnight “there was a bunch of yelling and screaming, and a lot of bangs.”
“It sounded like explosions,” Siddall said.
She evacuated with “four kids, a dog and a cat,” and was not allowed to return until around 4 a.m.
“It was quite a large fire,” Siddall said.
Angela Peddemors, who lives “right behind the fire,” reported hearing “small bangs, and then police [sirens], then a big bang.”
“[I] looked, and there was huge flames,” Peddemors recalled.
“So I got my roommate out and knocked on other doors to get my neighbors up. I yelled ‘fire’ to wake more people up, then I got my car out and more police came and started to evacuate everyone from our houses.”
“They brought in buses for people to stay in from transit,” Peddemors added.
Kevin Snowden, Township assistant fire chief, said the main building at the forest products site was engulfed in flames and crews took a defensive approach.
Embers and heat picked up, so the nearby townhouse complex and some houses were evacuated and a team of firefighters positioned themselves near the townhouse building to protect it, he said.
There was only some minor melting of the vinyl on one of the townhouses.
The Langley Township fire department is also investigating.
