"It was fate."
That's how Garibaldi Highlands homeowner Cliff Miller sums up a situation that could've turned horribly bad for him and his wife had it not been for a Good Samaritan out on a late night walk.
On Saturday night (July 24), Miller and off-duty volunteer firefighter Dan Arnold were each enjoying typical summer fun.
Miller, a local mountain bike community leader, was hosting an after party for the Gearjammer bike race in his Paisley Place home. Arnold had accepted a few friends' invitation to hang out and watch movies at their place.
By around midnight, Miller's party had dispersed and he and his wife went to bed.
Meanwhile, Arnold had fallen asleep on the friend's couch, and by 3 a.m. had woken up and decided to walk back to his Garibaldi Highlands home.
As he passed the Perth Drive and Glacier View area, Arnold noticed smoke hanging in the air illuminated by the streetlamps.
"I thought 'Hmm, there's a fire ban on right now. I should really check that out, maybe someone didn't put out their campfire properly,'" said Arnold, a municipal lifeguard by day.
He couldn't immediately spot the source of the smoke, and checked various backyards, eventually walking down Perth Drive. At Paisley Place, he found what he was looking for.
"There were flames climbing up this trellis. It didn't look like just a little campfire. It was actually climbing up something, so it was pretty bad."
The fire had travelled up one side of a large gazebo covered with vines in Miller's backyard. Arnold ran around to the front of the house, noted the address and called 911 to report the fire. He was also clear-headed enough to make sure the dispatcher knew it wasn't an actual house fire since that would mean a call out to all companies.
The dispatcher kept him on the phone, but Arnold was eager to get to work.
"It was pretty funny, because I told the 911 people, 'Hey can I hang up now and put it out?' they said 'Go ahead!'" he laughed.
He then banged on Miller's door and called out to him. They men returned to the gazebo and while Arnold dumped a cooler full of ice on the flames, Miller grabbed his hose and began to douse the fire in earnest.
By the time the duty officer arrived, the danger was gone.
"We came out and checked it out with a thermal imaging camera, made sure it was totally out, which it was, and that was it," said firefighter Bob Fulton.
Fulton said the dry conditions, the combustible plant material and proximity to homes could've led to disaster.
"If it hadn't been discovered when it was discovered, it quite easily could've gotten into those trees and extended beyond that, no question."
Both Miller and Arnold said they knew each other vaguely only from being "around town," and neither stopped to talk that evening.
But they pondered the situation afterward while inspecting the damage.
"It must have been dramatic because it was a four by eight sheet of lattice that burned," said Miller.
Arnold said it was "handy" he'd been walking by.
"It's just what are the odds that you're going to get to catch something before the fire department gets there, so it's super low odds for it to happen, and I was taken aback by the whole thing," said Arnold. "But it was small. We were lucky."
He also credited Squamish Fire Rescue for the training he's received at no cost over the past year and a half.
"It's a pretty valuable thing."
