MAPLE RIDGE (NEWS1130)- A huge fire ripped through the new Silver Ridge subdivision in Maple Ridge Wednesday afternoon.

Fire crews responded to the area of 227 Street & 136 ‘A’ Avenue around 3:50 p.m. after reports of several homes on fire. Thirty minutes later, four homes became fully involved.

Scott was out for a walk a couple of kilometres away and says he could see the smoke high above the tree line. “It just keeps on going and going and going. It’s hundreds of feet in the air. You can’t miss it. I think Vancouver residents could see it.”

Kim Seale in the News1130 Air Patrol arrived at the fire just as the fourth house caught fire. She says the subdivision is very new, so crews had a tough time trying to fight the fire.

“The houses were unfortunately very close together, so it spread from house number one to house number two and three, and when fire crews got there, that’s what we saw them working on,” she explains. “That fourth house went up in about seven or eight minutes from time we got there to the next report 10 minutes later, it was completely engulfed in flames.”

Assistant Chief of Operations with the Maple Ridge Fire Howard Exner says all resources had to be brought in to battle this one. “It was a very aggressive fire. There were basically four houses under construction that did not have any fire separation or fire protection in them yet.”

The cause is still unknown, but witnesses point to construction workers who were using torches on one of the homes.

(Courtesy of Kim Seale in the News1130 Air Patrol)






(Courtesy Joanne Abshire, News1130)