Young Gymnasts Converge on LEC
THURSDAY February 20, 2014 • www.langleytimes.com NEWS Wheeling Around the World
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BUSINESS Where’s the Beef?
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SPORTS Spartans in Final Four
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Two suspicious fires in Langley City SECOND ‘CONCERNING’ BLAZE IGNITED HALF HOUR AFTER FIRST WAS EXTINGUISHED MONIQUE TAMMINGA Times Reporter
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City fire crews battled a blaze in the downtown business district overnight Tuesday. The fire, which is considered suspicious, consumed a shed and caused smoke damage to surrounding businesses. Around 30 minutes after the fire was put out, crews were called to a second fire in the garbage can of an apartment laundry room. It was extinguished by the time they arrived.
Langley City firefighters were kept busy early Tuesday morning, after two suspicious fires, one torching a storage shed attached to Ashoka Indian restaurant and the other inside an apartment building. Around midnight, firefighters were called to a shed which was fully engulfed in flames, in an alleyway in the 20500 block of Fraser Highway. The shed is attached to the back of the restaurant and used for storage. In total, 19 firefighters battled the blaze, managing to put out the flames before they spread to the attached businesses, said City deputy fire chief Bob Scott. Firefighters cut their way into the restaurant to check if the fire had spread inside. They also ventilated neighbouring businesses. Thirty minutes later, at 12:36 a.m., firefighters were called out to smoke in the third floor hallway of the Berry Road apartments in the 5400 block of 208 Street. Residents had already evacuated the building.
“A garbage can was lit on fire in the laundry room on the third floor,” said Scott. “An occupant in the building used the fire extinguisher to put out the fire before we arrived.” Residents were allowed to go back in and Langley RCMP along with fire investigators are working on both suspicious fires, he said. “These fires are concerning,” Scott. The fire at Ashoka restaurant has forced neighbouring business One Fish Two Fish to close, due to smoke. The popular fresh seafood store will re-open on Saturday. Owner Heather Jenkins said the smoke damage caused her to throw out her entire inventory, including all fresh, frozen and dry goods. Other businesses were also impacted by the smoke. If you have any information or saw anything suspicious around either of these fires call Langley RCMP at 604-532-3200, or if you wish to remain anonymous call Crimestoppers at 1-800-222TIPS.
Langley’s growth outstripping Surrey’s DAN FERGUSON Times Reporter
The Township of Langley is growing at a rate of 256 new residents a month, according to the latest population growth statistics released by the provincial government. Langley City is barely growing at all. The annual BC Stats figures, released on Jan. 31, show the Township grew from
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109,359 residents in 2012 to 112,440 last year, a growth rate of 2.8 per cent, or an average of 256 new people every month. That is a faster rate of growth than neighbouring Surrey, which experienced a 2.3 per cent increase in population in 2013, breaking the half-million mark to total 504,661. The population of Langley City was essentially unchanged, going from 26,288 in
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2012 to 26,301 in 2013. The Township remains the sixth-largest municipality in Metro Vancouver, after Vancouver, Surrey, Burnaby, Richmond and Coquitlam. If Langley Township and City were counted together, they would rise to become the fifth-largest municipality in Metro, with 138,741 people. BC Stats produces its population es-
timates based on indicators like health client registration and residential hydro hook-ups to gauge population growth from one year to the next. The agency report calculated the population of the whole province at 4,581,978. Annual population growth held steady at 0.9 per cent between July 1, 2012 and June 30, 2013, with just under 39,000 new residents, BC Stats says.
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