John Chaisson was planning to go for a bike ride and help a friend at his business, but a fire in the apartment suite below his changed all his plans and his future.
Langley City Fire Rescue called in Township firefighters for the three-alarm fire near 201A Street and 56th Avenue as of just before 9 a.m. on Friday morning.
“I heard the alarm go off but I didn’t think anything about it until I looked out my window and that’s when I seen smoke coming up and that’s when I decided to get out of the building,” Chaisson said. “So now, I’ve got no place to live.”
He has lived in the building about eight years and likes living there, says the other residents are mostly friendly and the building has security.
Chaisson, who is on a disability, paid $820 per month plus Hydro, and is doubtful he can find anything affordable. But he’s grateful he and everyone got out.
“I lost everything,” he said. “To me my life is more important than what valuables is. Pictures and stuff, I can replace that.”
As smoke detectors bleated inside the apartment building, residents and the public stood on the sidewalk and watched fire crews douse the suites to knock down the fire.
The fire was in an older low-rise apartment building, and appeared to be concentrated in a second-floor unit, with smoke and damage to the balcony. Chaisson said the people in the unit below his, which appears to be the starting location of the fire, had only lived there a matter of months.
The building is in the 5600 block of 201A Street and is called the Villa Fontana.
The building is not the same one where a fire that broke out in the early evening on Thursday, Nov. 29 around the same general area.
