An investigation will soon be underway to determine the cause of Thursday night’s massive fire on Mitchell Island.
The blaze rocked nearby homes with explosions and balls of fire widely reported by residents.
The fire broke out just before 8 p.m. with the majority of buildings within an auto-wrecking yard fully ablaze by the time firefighters arrived from Richmond Fire-Rescue.
According to Richmond Fire-Rescue, firefighters had to deal with the possible collapse of a building, although there were no occupants inside.
It's the second time this year that the yard in questions has been the scene of a large fire.
Local residents flooded social media with pictures, videos and accounts of “tons of explosions” at the site of the fire.
There were 28 firefighters on the scene Thursday night, with many remaining at the site until Friday morning to make sure the flames didn’t start back up.
Tim Wilkinson, deputy chief of operations with Richmond Fire-Rescue, told the Richmond News on Friday morning that, although the fire is extinguished, they are still dealing with “minor spot fires…beneath a collapsed portion of the building.”
Wilkinson said an investigation into the cause of the fire will be started later today “when the area is deemed to be safe for that process.
He added that environmental staff from the Canadian Coast Guard, the provincial government and the City of Richmond are “coordinating on containing any runoff that may pollute the Fraser River.
This isn’t the only time that a fire has broken out on Mitchell Island recently. In June, a blaze broke out at a mattress recycling depot, at the very same facility where another fire broke out two years prior.
