METH LAB LINKED TO SURREY HOUSE FIRE

20 Residents Of Nearby Homes Flee Toxic Fumes

More than 20 Surrey residents were evacuated yesterday after a
suspected meth-lab exploded, setting a home ablaze in their
neighbourhood.

Surrey Cpl. Diane Blain said firefighters and police were dispatched
to a home at 124th Street and 95A Avenue at about 2 p.m. after a call
from neighbours.

A police officer looked through a window as the fire was taking hold
and spotted a methamphetamine laboratory, Blain said.

A hazardous-materials crew was called in because meth labs contain
highly flammable and poisonous ingredients such as brake fluid and red
phosphorous.

By 4 p.m., police had evacuated residences downwind from the fire.
Streets on either side of the two-level home were blocked off as
firefighters battled the blaze.

An unusually unpleasant odour kept other neighbours such as Kai
Lavkien indoors.

Lavkien, who has lived in the 12400-block 95A Avenue for three years,
said the home that caught fire had been sold about three months ago,
and he had not seen anyone coming or leaving the house since then.

But a neighbour told him someone had been spotted running from the
home just before the explosion.

Fernando Miguel, who lives a block away from the fire, said there used
to be another meth lab near his home. He said he complained to Surrey
officials several times because each night the tenants would turn on a
generator. About three months later, police raided the home and shut
down the lab.

RCMP Cpl. Scott Rintoul said 30 meth labs were uncovered by the RCMP
in B.C. last year, twice the number in 2002.

About half of those labs were found because a fire had broken out in
the house or warehouse where the lab was located, said Rintoul.

He said the growing demand for meth is fuelled by the fact the drug is
regularly sold as ecstacy.