Update: 5:40 p.m.
According to Gibsons and District Volunteer Fire Department deputy fire chief Jordan Pratt, it was two bylaw officers who initially spotted the fire at the corner of Marine Drive and Beach Avenue in Gibson this morning and alerted the residents, who were still inside.
Town of Gibsons bylaw officers Sue Booth and Tamara Jaswal, then helped to evacuate the residents of the home.
"I would like to highlight the efforts made by Sue and Tamara to ensure the residents were aware of the fire and able to safely evacuate the fire-involved building," said Pratt.
Original story: 2:30 p.m.
The Gibsons and District Volunteer Fire Department was called out to a fire at the corner of Marine Drive and Beach Avenue in Gibsons at 10:29 a.m., Feb. 3, which led to the closure of Beach for much of the morning.
Deputy fire chief Jordan Pratt says 21 members responded to the scene, accompanied by five apparatus trucks and two support vehicles. He added, the fire took place at a home under renovation and caused significant damage to an upper suite. And while there was no fire damage to the lower suite, it did suffer some water damage.
“Our investigator is just still down there and looking for the source of ignition and where things started,” said Pratt.
He noted Gibsons was able to handle the fire without calling for aid from a neighbouring fire department, though they had support from BC Ambulance Service, which was onsite in case a firefighter was injured, as well as Fortis Gas, BC Hydro and members of the Gibson bylaw department, who helped with the road closure.
“So, it's definitely a team effort when one of these events happens.”
It’s likely neighbouring fire departments would have struggled to reach the Gibsons fire even if needed because a significant snowfall caused the closure of the Sunshine Coast Highway in several places in the early afternoon, including at Davis Bay.
Pratt, says when the crew arrived at the scene in the morning, it was barely snowing. That was definitely not the case by the time the crew had almost finished cleaning up the scene at 2:30 p.m. According to Environment Canada, Sechelt was expected to get up to 25 centimetres of snow throughout the afternoon and much of that fell while the firefighters were at the scene.
“We had 21 responders and they’re volunteers who left their work and their families in these conditions, and then, while we're on scene, [they started] receiving calls that the school is closed, so they were trying to make arrangements to get their kids picked up at the same time,” said Pratt. “So, you know, in the middle of a work day, that was at 10:30 a.m. and they're not going to be finished here for probably another half an hour, so that’s four-and-a-half hours of their time they were volunteering, giving to the community to make sure everybody's safe.”
Pratt says when it snows, it adds a layer of complexity to fighting a fire because the scene gets slippery and everyone has to really watch their footing.
“We have to just be cautious, even simply getting off the truck and all the normal operations that we undertake during a structure fire emergency event,” said Pratt.
He notes the volunteer firefighters do an exemplary job for no pay. He says when he started 23 years ago, the Gibsons fire department was responding to about 100 calls a year.
“Last year we were at 300 and a couple of years ago, we were over 400,” said Pratt. “That’s a lot of volunteer hours.”