Fire on Gabriola
When the wind came up yesterday and the power went out, we knew there’d be a line down somewhere. What we didn’t know – well, then, anyway – was that the power line started a fire in the trees on Brickyard Hill (between Wharf and Ferne on the non-water side).
Imagine, oh, 100 metres or so of trees on fire, and then how you’d feel if you were the fire chief first on the scene. Yikes. I know what words I would have said if I’d been Rick, but I won’t print them here.
The rest of the story is rather predictable: Gabriola’s heroic and amazing volunteer fire department zoomed to the scene and put the fire out.
There was a smaller fire in the woods at the south end last night – they put that one out, too.
Updates:
- After the fire (photos).- Gabriolan.ca
- South Road closed for three hours due to brush fire – Gabriola Sounder. (Has photo.)
- Brickyard Hill fire ‘potentially devastating’ – Flying Shingle. (Great details.)
Filed in Gabriola Island 10 Comments so far
10 Responses to “Fire on Gabriola”
Laurie MacBride, Eye on Environment on 03 Oct 2012 at 8:46 am #
Thanks so much for this post – and hurray, and huge thanks and gratitude, to our great volunteer fire fighters. I saw/heard several firetrucks yesterday and was wondering what was going on – good to have the mystery solved, and even better that the story has a happy ending.
skadhu on 03 Oct 2012 at 12:31 pm #
Hurrah and thanks to all the volunteers! It’s sooo dry right now—although I’m enjoying the weather on one level, on others it’s more than worrying. Let’s hope for rain soon.
pericat on 03 Oct 2012 at 12:38 pm #
Wow! Wondered what that was about. Thanks for the update, and yay! firefighters!
Ben Finn on 03 Oct 2012 at 2:23 pm #
I was wondering what that was about. Yay, firefighters!
Our first Gabriola power outage was mercifully brief, thank goodness. I have to say that I’m happy the landlord lives next door — she trotted over and gave us a brief “this is what you do when the power goes out” lesson.
John Peirce on 03 Oct 2012 at 2:37 pm #
An interesting picture of the fire as viewed from Mudge is on the Community Bulletin Board on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/105764696161763/384940591577504/?notif_t=group_activity
Gabriolan on 03 Oct 2012 at 3:12 pm #
Thanks, John!
(Too bad that only Facebook users are allowed to view it.)
Ben Finn on 04 Oct 2012 at 9:31 pm #
Not so! You can paste the image URL directly, and then anybody can see it, like so:
Click for the image.
Gabriolan on 04 Oct 2012 at 9:57 pm #
Thanks, Ben! Most helpful.
Rick on 05 Oct 2012 at 11:29 am #
Haha ! Yes Gabriolan, I used those words!
Incidentally , I have never seen a fire here spread so fast.
From the time of the power blip indicating the wires down to getting the page, then getting on scene was about 10 minutes. Approx 100m of the side of south road was involved by then.
The saving grace was people seeing and reporting the fire starting. Had this been the middle of the night I suspect the first indication would have been smoke detectors going off in the homes at the bottom of brickyard hill. We would be national news for sure.
Maybe we should organize a rain dance?
Gabriolan on 08 Oct 2012 at 9:14 pm #
Rick –
>The saving grace was people seeing and reporting the fire starting. Had this been the middle of the night I suspect the first indication would have been smoke detectors going off in the homes at the bottom of brickyard hill. We would be national news for sure.
That’s an alarming thought.
>Maybe we should organize a rain dance?
Usually it rains if I water the garden, but that didn’t work this time.