Sometimes, when it rains, it pours.
District of North Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services had a busy afternoon Wednesday, being called to an industrial fire on the waterfront and two wilderness rescues within 17 minutes.
The first call came in at 4:10 p.m. as a reported fall from a bridge on a trail in Lynn Canyon. Three District of North Vancouver trucks raced to the scene while dispatch co-ordinated with rangers in the park. As crews were hunting for the injured hiker, another call came in at 4:19 p.m., this time for swimmers in danger in Capilano Canyon.
District Fire and Rescue scrambled more vehicles to a scene, along with crews from West Vancouver Fire and Rescue.
In that emergency, swimmers had become stranded on the far side of the Capilano River and were unable to safely swim back because of the fast flowing current. Backed up by West Van, District of North Van firefighters carried out a swift water rescue and collected the stranded and cold swimmers in an inflatable raft. Rangers, meanwhile, located the Lynn Canyon hiker, who suffered only a minor laceration.
Just eight minutes after the Capilano call, another 9-1-1 call came in, this time from Kinder Morgans industrial sulphur operation on the North Vancouver waterfront. With North Vancouver district crews already spread thin, more West Van units and North Vancouver City Fire Department trucks immediately responded to extinguish the six-foot by 10-foot blaze within an hour. The cause of the fire is under investigation. No harmful sulphur dioxide gas was detected as a result of the fire, according to Kinder Morgan.
Crews from all three fire departments rely on a system that uses risk assessment and statistical analysis to strategically place firefighting resources so no area is left unprotected while multiple emergencies take place.
It looks at the whole picture. Its a program thats been scientifically developed and its constantly updating statistics, said Jim Bonneville, District of North Vancouvers assistant fire chief.
