Fighting fires and saving marinas on his days off is just part of the job for Halfmoon Bay Fire Chief Ryan Daley, who is being hailed as something of a hero in Comox this week.
Daley was working as a contractor, doing wharf improvements at the Comox Fisherman’s Wharf on Feb. 12, when he was called upon by the wharfinger to help battle a blaze inside a commercial diving vessel moored onsite.
“I was in my office in the morning at approximately 8:50 a.m. and Ryan was onsite with his crew working [on the dock] when I got a phone call from our adjacent facility, the gas dock, and they said they had just heard an explosion and that it looked like there was smoke coming out of one of the chimneys of a dive boat,” said wharfinger Rob Clarke.
He went to the dock to investigate and, upon seeing heavy smoke and flames shooting out from the windows and the rear door of the vessel, he called 9-1-1 and attempted to combat the blaze himself with a handheld extinguisher.
Not feeling confident in his firefighting abilities and remembering an earlier conversation with Daley where he identified himself as a firefighter, Clarke called for Daley’s help.
“He came right over and jumped onboard the boat and discharged four fire extinguishers through the window of the cabin that was on fire. I fully credit him with saving the boat and possibly many boats that were tied beside it,” Clarke said.
The wharfinger said he was concerned about the possibility of explosion from one or more of the dive canisters aboard the 32-foot aluminium dive boat, but Daley seemed undeterred by the “popping and crackling sounds.”
In a follow-up interview with Daley, he said he stayed far enough away from the cab of the vessel to remain safe if an explosion did occur and he seemed a bit surprised by the credit given him by Clarke.
“I didn’t take any unnecessary risks. I just did what I could to get the fire knocked down and stop it from spreading even quicker. So I didn’t do too much, just what I could,” Daley said.
He noted his response wasn’t any different than what other firefighters on the Coast do daily.
“It is really kind of funny because firefighters at home do the same thing all the time, every day, so it’s just funny that when it happens here [in Comox], it had a bit of twist to it, so it got some attention,” he said. “But really, when you look at all of the fire departments on the Sunshine Coast, we’re always doing this kind of stuff all of the time, so there’s nothing out of the ordinary as far as I can see.”
Daley managed to knock the fire down and keep it at bay long enough to contain the damage to just one vessel, and he said the Comox fire department was on scene within minutes to finish the job and fully extinguish the blaze.
Clarke said Daley’s quick action kept the fire from spreading and saved other boats in the area as well as the dock.
While Daley might not agree with the term “hero,” Clarke said the Halfmoon Bay Fire Chief’s “heroic action” made all the difference that day.
