Six Township fire trucks and 30 firefighters spent several hours battling a massive barn fire on 256 St. north of 24 Ave. in Langley Saturday morning.
It took several hours to extinguish and forced a shutdown of the street. No injuries were reported.
Neighbour Art Bandenieks, who used to own the property where the barn was located, said the area was rocked by “a gigantic blast” that sent fire and clouds of smoke billowing high into the air, destroying the strcuture, a former dairy barn built in 1967.
“Apparently there were some propane tanks,” said Bandenieks, who lives half a mile from the fire site and shared photos of the fire on social media.
Bandenieks said the people who bought half of his 40-acre family farm turned it into a blueberry operation, “so the big barn wasn’t really useful for them other than storing equipment, including their blueberry picker” which was worth an estimated $250,000, he estimated.
“They also had somebody renting space in there and storing truck tires.”
The roof had been changed from a metal roof to plywood and shingles, so “the flames just raced from one end to the other, and in half an hour it was gone.”
By 10 a.m., the fire departmen had a big ladder truck in there, “just soaking the place down with water,” Bandenieks described.
Fire on rural property blocks off 256 north of 24 in Langley pic.twitter.com/gBWVLNNMDc
— Langley Advance Times (@LangleyTimes) March 21, 2026
Township of Langley Fire Department Deputy Chief Cory Parker said firefighters were called in just after 5 a.m. to the rural area.
“First arriving crews found a heavy fire on a structure at the rear of the property and began a defensive fire attack,” said Parker.
256 St. was closed to all but local traffic and fire crews for several hours while water was trucked in to fight the blaze.
“This area is unhydrated so we have a water shuttle [with] about six trucks that are shuttling water from the nearest hydrants,” Parker explained.
A barn that was used to house equipment was destroyed.
“Not a livestock barn,” Parker said. “No animals were involved. They lost a lot of machinery.”
Cause of the blaze has not been determined.
Township of Langley operations crews were called in to check the potential environmental impact of runoff from the structure into the ditches and surrounding areas.
“There’s a creek that runs right through that property,” Parker said.