It was an eye-opener, Nathan Webb says, when what started as a manageable fire quickly became a fierce blaze.
On June 17, Squamish firefighters rushed to a call off Logger’s Lane. The engine was there within 15 minutes, but the nearest fire hydrant was 243 metres away. It cost the firefighters precious time to locate the hydrant and set up the equipment, and meanwhile, the summer wind was fueling the flames, said Webb, whose house is nearby.
“By the time they got the water on it, it was already out of control.”
The storage building on the industrial lot behind his house on Robin Drive was gutted. If the fire had taken place at night, it would have been an “absolute disaster,” Webb says. The blaze highlighted the lack of fire hydrants between Finch Drive and the Squamish Adventure Centre, Webb says.
“If that had been a residence, we would have lost the whole house,” Webb says, adding that it also could have spread into Smoke Bluffs Park.
Hydrants must be located in general at street intersections and no more than 150 metres apart nor more than 90 metres from a building entrance, according to District of Squamish policy. However, Squamish Fire Rescue covers areas that aren’t on the municipal water system or are undeveloped and therefore don’t have hydrants, Chief Bob Fulton said. There is no watermain along Government Road between Finch Drive and the Squamish Adventure Centre.
The district has a provision in place to insure new developments include hydrants. The municipality receives security deposits and holds them until the work is completed, district staff stated in an email. This takes place as part of a servicing agreement.
There is no municipal water supply past Ross and Government roads, and the last fire hydrant on Highway 99 is at Depot Road. Paradise Valley is off the municipal system, as are neighbourhoods past the Jack Webster Bridge in Squamish Valley.
If a fire strikes in areas off the municipal water system, the department uses its fire engines’ 500 to 600-gallon tanks or shuttles portable water tanks to the site, Fulton noted.
