Anisha Rana was caring for four children under the age of four at her home daycare in Langley, B.C., when a powerful explosion tore through the house next door last Friday.
The deafening blast shook her basement, leaving her momentarily disoriented.
“I couldn’t comprehend what was happening,” she recalled. “Was it a major earthquake? Was my house collapsing?”
Panic set in as she frantically called for her husband upstairs. Peering through the window, she was met with a chaotic scene.
“Debris was falling everywhere, and I could hear glass shattering from the explosion,” she said.
But instinct quickly took over. Realizing the urgency, she knew she had to get the children out immediately.
“We switched to evacuation mode,” she said. “They’re so young, but they were incredibly brave, following instructions without hesitation.”
Thanks to monthly fire drills, the children were well-prepared. They swiftly made their way out the front door and across the street to a neighbor’s house, watching in shock as flames consumed the home next door.
“How did we all escape unharmed? It feels like a miracle,” Rana said, still shaken by the ordeal. The thought of what could have happened if they had been outside at the time haunts her.
“The weather was beautiful, and I had planned to take them outside earlier than usual,” she reflected.
Now, her backyard—where the children would have been playing—is charred, and the side of her house is severely damaged from the fire.
“On one hand, we feel lucky to be safe. On the other, I can’t stop replaying that day in my mind, thinking, ‘What if?’”
On Monday, she stepped inside her damaged home for the first time since the explosion.
“From the front, it looks untouched. But the back—it looks like an apocalypse,” she said.
“It no longer feels like my home. It’s like a ghost house. Seeing it like this is heartbreaking.”
For now, Rana and her husband are living in a hotel while working with their insurance company to determine their next steps.
But beyond losing her home, she’s also lost her livelihood.
“It suddenly hit me—‘Oh my God, I don’t have a job anymore,’” she said. “I have no idea what comes next.”
Langley RCMP have yet to determine the cause of the explosion, but preliminary investigations suggest an illegal drug lab may have been operating in the home that was destroyed.
Rana, however, never noticed anything unusual.
“They seemed like any other family,” she said. “I’d take the children outside every day, and the neighbors would often step out to greet us.”
Authorities confirmed Monday that one person was found dead, while two others remain in critical condition. Investigations are ongoing.
