Langley restaurant owner left picking up pieces after massive fire

A Langley man is “devastated” after a massive fire destroyed his restaurant Sunday.

A raging fire tore through Viva Mexico restaurant at 20559 Fraser Highway in downtown Langley Saturday, completely destroying the building.

City of Langley Fire Department Chief Scott Kennedy told 1130 NewsRadio that crews were called to the building shortly after 6:30 a.m. after a report of a small exterior fire.

On arrival, they found light smoke coming from various parts of the building but then located a “fairly significant fire” inside the building. By late afternoon Sunday, the restaurant had been totally destroyed.

Baldo Urtusastegui, owner of Viva Mexico, tells CityNews that it’s very hard to accept that his restaurant is gone.

“It’s awful. I mean, you put so much love and so much care and pride on what you do when you love what you do. It’s very hard to accept that it’s gone,” said Urtusastegui.

He says he’s been a restaurateur in Canada since 1982 and Viva Mexico, his sixth establishment, had been open for nine years before the fire.

“So me, my family, all are devastated because of this. But obviously we’re happy we’re all okay. But the hard work we put on this business, it was a lot,” said Urtusastegui.

“A lot of years and a lot of love. But right now, we know that we have a lot of support from the community, and we will be able to get back in our feet very soon.”

Urtusastegui says, aside from the building, the biggest losses are the restaurant’s inventory of appliances, food and liquor — including “the biggest collection of tequila” in Langley — and Mexican decorations that his family had picked up through the years.

He says Viva Mexico employed 18 people and that’s his strongest motivation to reopen.

“They love their jobs, and that’s the hardest part of all. So hopefully the we’re going to meet with them tomorrow, and everybody is going to be okay until we are able to to find out if insurance are going to cover part of their wages throughout these months or not. And then we are going to be offering, of course, we’re going to be offering them their job as soon as we reopen,” said Urtusastegui.

The owner of a business located next door to Viva Mexico says the damage to her store is “overwhelming.” 

By the late afternoon Sunday, Kennedy says fire crews decided to use heavy machinery to bring the fire to an end.

“So we brought in the excavator to be able to start taking things apart so we could cool it completely to ensure the fire was out and didn’t extend to any other buildings,” Kennedy told CityNews Monday.

While the flames did not spread to other buildings, smoke and water did.

Jovita Gale, owner of Constant Collectibles — a store directly adjacent to where Viva Mexico formerly stood — visited her shop for the first time since the fire Monday morning.

“The smell is overwhelming when you walk in, so that kind of hits you in the face as soon as you get in there. There’s soot on the ground. There was standing water. I think a lot of it has been dried. So that’s kind of what we’re seeing — soot on the product, wet product, that sort of thing,” said Gale.

She says she doesn’t know how much it will cost to fix the damage yet, as her insurance company is still assessing.

Constant Collectibles sells rare models, figurines, and replica movie props, including a replica of the Annabelle doll from The Conjuring film franchise, which Gale says was worth $666.

Gale says the doll took on water and possibly smoke, despite being kept in a box.

“I think she’s probably soggy in there as well… And once the smoke gets into cardboard, it’s hard to get out,” said Gale.

Gale says the timing of the fire was significant, as she and her employees were recently preparing to celebrate the store’s first anniversary since opening.

“It’s overwhelming. It really is, because this is our pride and joy,” said Gale. “We’re going to have to see what we can do to bring it all back to how we had it and get bigger and better.”

Kennedy says, as of Monday, the investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing and crews have so far not determined a cause.

Urtusastegui says he’s been told the cause may have been an electrical fault, but claims his sprinkler system was serviced three months ago and should have been working.

“We will be back,” said Urtusastegui. “And I hope to see you again, to all my regular customers.”

—With files from Angela Bower, Emma Crawford, and David Nadalini.