Gibsons Fire Chief Rob Michael says the department is working with the Gibsons Landing Harbour Authority to improve water supply to the dock areas following a June 4 fire that destroyed a boathouse, and three sailboats.
During his quarterly report for Gibsons council, Michael was asked by Mayor Wayne Rowe, “What issues arose out of that from your perspective, what lessons, what do we need to do?”
Michael said given the risk of a fire in the harbour area it is one of the scenarios firefighters train for and overall “the call went well.” He also said thanks to cooperation with RCM SAR they were able to prevent the damaged boats from sinking and causing an environmental hazard or from drifting and spreading the blaze to other docks.
The fire was not on a Harbour Authority dock, but Michael said firefighters wanted to tap into the Authority’s water system as part of the response.
“We did try to utilize some of the existing water supply systems at the nearby [Gibsons Landing Harbour] Authority, which did not meet our expectations,” Michael told council. “We have followed up with them since then and are actively working on making sure that system is robust to prevent any spread of fire if a similar incident happens again.”
Michael also told council that calls for illegal burning seem to be on the rise. There were 13 in the second quarter of 2018, compared to just four in the same period of 2017. “I’m trying to have a multi-faceted approach to that – education, fining, consistency through different bylaws to make sure the message is clear and the message is out there,” he said.
The second quarter also saw the first call for the GVFD’s new ladder truck, which was used to douse the flames when a May 20 fire destroyed a barn and workshop at a property on Cemetery Road.
