Gibsons & District Volunteer Fire Department (GDVFD) Fire Chief Rob Michael presented on unique types of fires as well as the herculean efforts of Sunshine Coast volunteer firefighter crews deployed throughout B.C. in a second-quarter report.
Michael gave his report to Town of Gibsons council members at the July 18 committee of the whole.
In the community
From April to June, the GDVFD responded to 82 calls to service, including a vehicle that ran into a building, as well as an X-ray machine that caught fire.
This number is down from the 89 calls the department received in the same quarter last year.
In a later interview with Coast Reporter, Michael said, “There was a fire in a local vet where an X-ray machine ended up burning through the wall and burst a water pipe and the fire self-extinguished that way.”
Michael said the fire department only got the call when staff arrived the following morning and saw water pouring out the front of their business.
As for the vehicle colliding with a building, Michael described it as “a case of mistaken identity between the brake pedal and gas pedal,” which resulted in a small amount of building damage when the vehicle went through the glass of a local business.
Volunteers throughout the province
On May 14, the GDVFD sent a crew of three firefighters to the Fort St. John area to assist in wildfire response.
According to Michael, this was the earliest in the season the fire department had been called to assist, and is the farthest that they have travelled.
Additional crews have been sent throughout the province to assist communities in danger from wildfires.
Michael also said that on June 10, a structure protection crew was sent to the Vanderhoof area, part of their duties involved installing sprinkler systems on homes in isolated areas.
Often the volunteer crews sent throughout the province will be split between departments, the current team deployed consists of firefighters from Gibsons, Roberts Creek and Halfmoon Bay.
In order to coordinate and deploy crews throughout the province, the fire department depends on dedicated volunteers, which the Sunshine Coast has no shortage of, according to Michael.
“I think it's a testament that we have the right volunteers that want to not only help their own community, they want to help the broader community and go out and be deployed in the province and make a bigger impact,” he said.
