The spokesperson for a group of homeowners asking for an expansion of the West Howe Sound Fire Protection District, served by the Gibsons and District Volunteer Fire Department (GDVFD), says there’s a growing level of frustration within the community — especially in light of a fire Monday that destroyed a home on Port Mellon Highway.
The community, including the home that burned to the ground at the corner of Wray Road, is outside of the boundary protected by the GDVFD. Group spokesperson Tim Rockford believes the onus is on the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) to protect all residents within its boundaries.
“The SCRD has a reasonable duty of care to provide fire protection services to all of its residents who are within realistic servicing distances from a fire hall,” Rockford told Coast Reporter. “And that, honestly, is what applies here. We are not in the remote hinterland. The majority of this area is within that eight- kilometre boundary and the rest of it is just slightly more, but within nine kilometres. So, it's right there. It's right along Port Mellon Highway, so it's easy to get to this area.”
The house fire, which started in the 1800 block of Port Mellon Highway March 24, happened outside of a fire protection district, so the Gibsons and District Volunteer Fire Department had to get permission from the provincial Emergency Coordination Centre to attend. Once it was determined there was no risk to life, firefighters on the scene were forced to stand down and leave.
A statement from Andy Bellerby, senior manager of Emergency and Protective Services for the SCRD, said approval to attend the fire did not include fire suppression efforts beyond a rescue.
"Without this approval, firefighters do not have workers’ compensation and liability coverage while at a scene," said the statement issued late Monday afternoon.
The cause of the fire, which closed the highway for several hours, is under investigation. RCMP say there was one occupant inside the residence during the incident and they escaped without injury.
Rockford, who was also on the scene of the fire, is convinced the blaze could have been largely contained to the attached garage if help had arrived. He noted an RCMP officer eventually arrived and took control of the situation as best he could.
Several neighbours and one volunteer firefighter helped control the blaze until it burned out, said RCMP.
“If we had had a fire truck that could have responded, I do believe that a significant portion of that structure could have been saved, because when I saw it first, it was isolated to the garage area of the main house, which was all part of one structure,” said Rockford. “Thank goodness though, that nobody died. That's the most important thing.”
The SCRD received an initial petition to expand the fire protection service boundary to include 69 properties northward along the Port Mellon Highway in 2023, according to a staff report. The area is adjacent to the Langdale ferry terminal and includes Camp Elphinstone, Williamson Landing, Langdale Heights RV Park, as well as areas directly adjacent to the Gibsons town boundary.
While the Gibsons fire chief did a preliminary review for a boundary expansion, he determined it could not proceed under existing resourcing and service levels. Fire chief Rob Michael cited challenges with maintaining service levels within the existing boundary, noting a call volume that’s nearly doubled in the past decade, as well as the increased training requirements placed on the volunteer base.
The homeowner group then asked that a feasibility study take place regarding the expansion of the fire protection district, but was told they’d need to wait until at least 2026.
Earlier in 2024, the SCRD’s Finance Committee recommended the study be deferred to 2027, but at a Nov. 14 committee of whole meeting, that decision was revisited at the urging of West Howe Sound area director Kate Stamford. A compromise was eventually reached to defer the matter to 2026. The estimate for the study is $35,000.
Rockford said the homeowners want to try to work collaboratively with the local fire department and the SCRD to conduct a proper feasibility assessment on what would be required to expand the fire protection boundary to encompass their community, including the use of water-transfer trucks.
“The residents in this area are overwhelmingly supportive of this initiative through a survey that we conducted a little over a year, year-and-a-half ago. In terms of paying for it, they're not looking for other people to pay for this.”
Rockford said it was hard to stand by and watch the house burn to the ground on Monday.
“People were asking, ‘Is a fire department going to come? Is the fire department going to come?’ And we kind of knew the situation, that they would likely not be coming because of the current situation,” said Rockford. “Because it's not formally within the boundaries, even though it's quite close by the town of Langdale.”
Anyone with more information regarding the fire is asked to contact Sunshine Coast RCMP.
