It took firefighters four days to confirm they had doused the last hot spot in the smoldering blaze in a wood waste pile in North Langley.
The fire was first reported to Langley Township Fire Department at 10 pm. on Sept. 10, said deputy fire chief Bruce Ferguson.
It was declared doused on Saturday, Sept. 14 at 6 p.m., Ferguson said.
The fire began in a large pile of wood waste on the Cloverdale Fuel lot in the 20400 block of 102B Avenue, in the industrial area north of Walnut Grove.
“We’re assuming it was spontaneous combustion,” said Ferguson. “That pile had been there for a considerable amount of time.”
After three to four months of decay, with the addition of some moisture from recent rains, the pile may have generated enough internal heat to burn, Ferguson said.
The pile was huge – approximatley 60 to 70 feet high, 100 feet wide, and 400 feet long.
Fire crews arrived and remained on scene in shifts continuously through the night and the next several days.
“We rotated crews in and out all the time,” Ferguson said.
Excavation equipment was called in to dig a trench to separate the smouldering mulch from unburnt material.
There were always at least 16 to 20 firefighters on site, and often more as different pieces of equipment were called in, Ferguson said.
The length of the fire, and the number of full-time and paid on call firefighters who fought it, meant that many firefighters put in long, difficult hours.
“We’ve got some tired, cranky people,” Ferguson said.
In between shifts at the fire, the firefighters still headed out to take shifts collecting money for the annual boot drive to benefit Muscular Dystrophy Canada.
READ MORE: Video – Firefighter boot drive hindered by labourious Langley bark mulch blaze
Now the Township firefighters are in clean up mode. During the many changes of shifts, pieces of equipment assigned to particular halls or vehicles weren’t returned to the right spots. It will take about a week to replace everything back where it belongs, though all the halls are operational and ready to fight fires, Ferguson said.
_________________________________
Is there more to this story?
Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter
_________________________________
