LangleyAdvance
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Your community newspaper since 1931
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Your source for local sports, news, weather, and entertainment: www.langleyadvance.com
Audited circulation: 41,100 – 40 pages
Emergency response
Blaze too close for comfort A fire sparked along the freeway consumed 20 acres and took hours to extinguish. by Matthew Claxton
mclaxton@langleyadvance.com
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Catherine Morgan and her husband Doug Folka were planning to head out to a barbecue Saturday night. But when they stepped out the front door of their North Otter home, they saw a bigger barbecue than they had bargained for. Morgan and Folka’s home survived a shower of hot cinders as a brush fire raged along the Trans-Canada Highway on the edge of their rural property. Quick action by their friends and neighbours, and by the Langley Township firefighters, prevented the loss of their home and possessions, the couple said. Folka said Morgan emerged from their home and swore at the sight that greeted her at around 4:15 p.m. A sizeable tree burst into flames as they watched. “It just went poof, it exploded,” Folka told the Langley dvance. “And it was scarier than hell.” “A little too close for our liking,” was how Morgan described the conflagration. The fire spread along the north side of the freeway, starting from just east of the 248th Street overpass, and jumping to start a new blaze as the wind carried embers. The fire raged as far as 256th Street – almost a mile away. Firefighters rushed virtually every available piece of equipment out to extinguish the blazes, while dozens of drivers called in to report the fire from their cellphones. There were 50 firefighters and every available pumping truck – except one – said assistant Langley Township chief Bruce Ferguson. Surrey firefighters stepped up to man the Murrayville firehall in case a second emergency hit. Folka said he called 911 immediately after seeing the fire, and the 30 seconds he waited for an operator seemed like four hours. When he was told the fire had already been reported, he went in search of workers at a tree nursery that surrounds his own land. At the advice of the firefighters who turned up soon after, he turned on his neighbour’s irrigation system and sprinklers. Area residents alerted by the
Troy Landreville/Langley Advance
Doug Folka’s home was showered with burning embers as a massive brush fire scorched the side of the Trans-Canada Highway Saturday. The first fireyards from my place,” the mayor fighters arrived said. at about 4:30 He was considering trying to p.m., and the evacuate his five horses and fire wasn’t other livestock before the fire fully contained was brought under control. until about 8 “This has been my worst p.m., Ferguson nightmare,” Green said. explained. He examined the extent of the However, damage from the two fires on they managed Sunday and was amazed at how to keep it from much land had been scorched. destroying any “The fire department did an buildings or getoutstanding job,” Green said. ting into any The cause of the fire is still Stu Miller/Special to the Advance major stands of unknown, but Ferguson suspects More than 50 firefighters doused the brush fire along the trees. it was a cigarette butt thrown The fire penefrom a passing car. There was freeway, which was closed to traffic during the emergency. trated about 100 no evidence of any other cause, metres off the such as a car accident or bonfire. column of smoke also helped the highway, in the area of the old The fire caused inconvenience couple by using garden hoses to government gravel pit near 256th for drivers using the freeway. spray the shingled roofs of their Street, he elaborated. He estimat- Both eastbound and westbound homes. ed 20 acres were burned. lanes were closed for a short “All the neighbours were out The blaze came close to turntime, with the westbound lanes there,” said Morgan. ing into a forest remaining shut One of them noticed that fire and spreading down for several some bark mulch around the “It just went through the rural hours. property’s garage had started to poof, it neighbourhood, The road clossmolder and doused that fire. said the assistant ures happened just The couple could have lost the exploded. And chief, who praised as drivers from entire garage, and the classic car it was scarier the work of the fireVancouver and up on blocks inside. than hell.” fighters who doused the western subFolka has since found a few the blaze. urbs were headholes burned in a canvas gazebo Doug Folka “That’s hard ing home from roof next to his home. work, lugging hose the Abbotsford The efforts of those who through all that terAirshow. pitched in with sprinklers was Langley RCMP and the Port much appreciated by firefighters. rain,” he said. “They did a hell of a job,” Mann Freeway Patrol diverted “That was a great asset to us,” Folka added. traffic around from the 264th to Ferguson said. Another resident grateful to the 232nd Street interchanges, with Firefighters were busy up and many drivers clogging Fraser down the mile-long length of the firefighters is Township Mayor Rick Green. Highway and other alternate fire, frantically trying to extin“That was a couple of hundred roads well into the night. guish the blaze for hours.