A fire at a Yarrow lumber outfit knocked out cable, internet and telephone service to large portions of Chilliwack Thursday evening.

The blaze broke out in a metal quonset hut near the corner of Yarrow Central and No. 3 roads. The quonset hut housed various wood products, but fire officials were able to largely contain the damage to the structure.

Wires on a nearby power pole, however, did sustain some damage, leading to the widespread outages in Chilliwack.

Dick Byker, who lives across the street from the lumber site, said the yard has seen little activity recently.

"My wife said, there's smoke coming out of the building," said Byker. "At first there was a lot of smoke coming out, then, all of a sudden you could hear it: vwoooooomph."

Byker said flames were shooting out the front of the hut.

"I thought that pole was going to go up."

The fire was still in mop up stages Friday morning and internet service had been restored.

tolsen@chilliwacktimes.com