Chimney Fire Challenges Responders

A chimney fire at the 17 Mile House challenged firefighters on several front. Due to the location of the chimney on the building, the safest access was over the aerial ladder, however the only place this could be set up was on Sooke Road. This required a call to the RCMP to establish traffic control. On arrival, the occupants reported that the building was filling with smoke, that the walls were starting to get hot and that they had already tried using a dry chemical extinguisher to no avail. With this report and only a small number of Sooke Firefighters available, a call was placed to Metchosin FD to supply and engine for mutual aid. The fire was difficult to extinguish due to blockages in the chimney from creosote. These had to be broken apart to enable the fire to be fully extinguished. On checking the attic for possible fire extension, crews were very surprised to see some fairly extensive burning on the rafters and timbers in this area. While not a result of this fire, at some point in time a fairly good attic fire had occured in this building. After about 90 minutes, crews had successfully stopped the fire, confirmed it had not spread and were able to clear the scene.

Fact or Fiction

Not sure if it is the election in the air or what, but there seems to be a lot of misinformation about the fire department operations out there right now. I will try to clear some of that up with answers to the five most common rumours.

1) The first rumour is that the "fire department is overstaffed". As of the moment the fire department has five full time employees. Four firefighters and the fire chief. Of this, two are on duty from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm daily. They work a four day on, four day off rotation. During Monday to Friday, the Fire Chief is also in the office. This means that there are two firefighters available during the day + the fire chief on weekdays. The remainder of the fire department is VOLUNTEER. Almost the entire volunteer compliment of firefighters work in GREATER VICTORIA. There are only a small group that actually live and work in Sooke. This means that during the day, it is not unusual to have NO volunteers show up to assist the two career staff on duty although some days there may be as many as six. Therefore it is somewhat difficult to say that a staff of two would be considered overstaffed.
By the way, there are NO firefighters in the station from 6:00 pm to 7:00 am daily. If a call comes in, volunteers are alerted by pager and must respond from home to the station and then get their gear on, get on a fire truck and then respond.

2) Rumour #2. "Volunteer firefighters get paid too much." Volunteer firefighters in Sooke get paid $0.00 per call. Off duty career staff that respond on hours when they are not working get paid $0.00 per call. (they do not get overtime or days off in lieu either) I don't know how you can get more cost efficient than 0. Should we now make the volunteers pay to go to calls? Might make recruiting a little difficult. Volunteers don't even get reimbursed for their gas money. This is a true committment to help their community.

3) Rumour #3. "We don't even need a fire department". If the fire department ceased to exist, the average homeowner insurance policy would triple. Commercial rates would likely be even higher.

4) Rumour #4 "Sooke has too many fire trucks" With the current compliment of fire trucks, Sooke Fire Rescue Service meets the requirements of the 1986 Fire Underwriters Survey requirements for fire apparatus. This means we have sufficient apparatus to meet the needs of this community when it was evaluated 25 years ago.

5) Rumour #5 "Emergency Services in Sooke cost the taxpayers too much money" On a straight per capita basis (not really a fair way to evaluate this, however) the cost per person for Police and Fire Service in Sooke works out to $0.55 per person/ per day. This is much less than a cup of coffee at a local fast food restaraunt. If you want to divide by actual services, the fire department cost is $0.20 per day per person and policing costs are $0.35 per person per day.

If you have any other questions or concerns about the fire department, please call us. We would be happy to answer your enquiry.

Haz Mat call forces closure of Sooke Road

At the request of the RCMP, firefighters responded to a report of a car pulled over with a heavy chemical smell coming from the vehicle. On arrival, the police explained that they had pulled over a suspected impaired driver. When they got near the vehicle a very strong odour of chemicals was observed. Upon an inspection of the vehicle, several containers were located in the back of the van. Not sure of what was involved crews took no chances and called for the hazardous materials trailer to respond. Firefighters closed Sooke Rd between Drennan and Charters and set up the haz mat and decontamination gear on the roadway. Crews in Level B chemical suits moved in to clean out the van. It was determined that a large quantity of cleaning products were inside and that one large container had leaked, mixing with dry powdered bleach and other products thus producing potentially toxic gases. The containers were moved into secure storage and the van towed away for decontamination. The driver of the van refused medical treatment at the scene. One police officer was taken to hospital for observation after complaining of ill effects from being near the van. He was released later that night. After about two hours on scene, the site was cleared and ready for traffic.

Another Structure Fire

A second structure fire in less than a week kept emergency responders busy in Sooke. The original call came in at 10:30 am on the 11th of October as smoke in the structure. As this was a day time call and faced with the usual shortage of volunteer firefighters for this time of day and immediate request for mutual aid was placed. This turned out to be a very good call. On arrival, Car 1 observed dark smoke coming from the vents on the side of the 2-storey duplex and all the windows were blackened along the Delta side. Engine 1 with a 4 person crew, arrived and forced entry on the side door and began a left hand search as we did not know if anyone was in the building. There was a report of a cat and dog in the home. The smoke was so heavy crews had very little visibility and could not see the seat of the fire. Searching the first room they entered (a bedroom) crews encountered a door without any door handles. It was later determined that the basement of this side of the duplex and had been illegally converted into a suite and the door without a handle entered the other suite. (this could have proved very dangerous if something had gone wrong and the firefighters had to make a quick escape) The Chief of Shirley FD who was in the area, heard the call and also attended. Engine 2 now arrived with a crew of 2 and set up for RIT. (a total of only 7 Sooke Firefighters responded) A few minutes later, an Engine from Otter Point FD arrived with a crew to provide backup. The fire was located and quickly extinguished. It originated on the top of the stove. While the fire damage was limited, heat and smoke damage was extensive throughout the suite. As the fire separation between the upper and lower suite was not adequate, light smoke damage was also found on the second floor. (neither tenant was insured). The dog was located in a kennel and was ok, but the cat was found semi-concious in the kitchen area. The cat was brought out and the ambulance crew adminstered oxygen which did revive the cat. It was later sent to a vet and at last report appeared to be ok. It was very fortunate that the passerby had seen the fire and called in. A few more minutes and the building like would have been fully involved.

Fire Prevention Week

This years fire prevention week was a major success with firefighters (and some ESS personnel) involved in a variety of activities. Beginning with an open house at the Fire Station on Thursday it was estimated that between 250 and 300 persons came to visit. While Sparky the Fire Dog and Puff the Fire Clown keep the kids (and adults) entertained with balloon animals and high fives there were many other things to do as well. Trying out the fire hose was very popular as was a jump in the bounce house. The ladder truck was demonstrated and the big Canada Day flag was a great way to draw people in. Dozens of bags of popcorn were handed out and we went through 7 dozen hot dogs. And while this was going on, a crew still managed to take the Otter Point FD down to Mariners to spend a couple of hours going through our expectations of what we would want them to do if a major event were to occur.

Thanks to leg work by Neil, the Pizza Delivery teams did a great job (well most of you) Thanks to support from Andys 2 for 1 Pizza and Sooke Home Hardware firefighters tagged along with the pizza delivery guy for a special incentive. If you agreed to let the firefighters into your home and let them test your smoke alarm (and it worked) you would get a 50% off your next pizza coupon. If it did not work, crews would install a new battery for you. If you had no detector, then a new unit would be supplied and installed. What a great program and great PR.

Then on Saturday, Fire and ESS personnel set up a home safety display at Sooke Home Hardware. Hundreds of people stopped by to ask questions on fire extinguishers, smoke alarms, emergency preparedness and even look at the 72 hour emergency kit.

All in all a great FPW for 2011. Thanks to all those that assisted and made these events so great.

Haz Mat Calls Keep Crews Hopping

It seems that Haz Mat calls are the flavour of the month. Not only was there the response to the house full of gas as mentioned in the last post, but Sooke Firefighters responded as part of the CRD Regional Haz Mat Team to a major chlorine leak on Dallas Road. For reasons still being investigated, it appears that bleach accidentaly mixed with muriatic acid (used as components to make chlorine for the pool located in this building)and caused a chemical reaction. This required the response of the main CRD Haz Mat unit from Central Saanich as well as Technicians from several local fire departments and 2 engine companies from Victoria (Victoria FD is currently not part of the Haz Mat Team) Three members from Sooke took turns as the entry team as well as the back up team on this event that lasted for approximately 10 hours. As they say, many times haz mat calls are "Hurry up and then wait" Fortunately there were no injuries reported.

A few days later, Sooke Firefighters responded to a reported propane leak on Austins Place. Crews arrived to find a house with slightly lowered oxygen levels and an odour of propane throughout the house. The tank on the property had been filled earlier in the day and it appeared that it may have been overfilled. This would result in the pressure relief valve opening as the sun warmed up the tank. As there was a vent for the air handling system located right above the propane tank, it would have sucked in the fumes causing the odour in the house. Crews used PPV and cleared the house quickly, allowing the owners safely back into their home.

A possible haz mat call was received yesterday, but fortunately only turned into a complicated vehicle exrtication exercise. It appears that a septic pumping truck was working at a home on Meota Drive when for unknown reasons (at this time) the truck began rolling away. As the home was located at the top of a steep driveway, the truck took off in reverse making it almost to the road but ending up nearly on its side in the ditch. A large wrecker was already on scene and the truck had been pumped out before the fire department was requested to attend. A check of the vehicle determined that no leaks from the fuel tank or septic tank were found. As a safety precaution, the culvert across the street was boomed to catch any run off. As the wrecker lifted the truck, crews used the air shores to assist in lifting and stabilizing the vehicle. Once it was back on the road, the truck was placed onto a flatdeck for transport back to Victoria. The vehicle could not be towed due to the broken axle it suffered in the crash.

Explosive Situation Controlled

Crews responded to a reported gas leak on Steeplechase last weekend. Fortis Gas was already on scene as they had been contacted by a neighbour who had smelled gas. The Fortis Rep checked the home with his meter and the readings were off the chart. He quickly contacted the fire department. C-1, B-1, E-1, E-2 and L-1 responded to the incident and quickly blocked off access. The new home was just in the final stages of construction and had been locked up for the weekend. Homes in the immediate vicinity were evacuated as crews set up a protection line and readied a fan for ventilation. With the house locked up tight, it appeared forcible entry would be required, however at the last moment a slightly opened window was observed on the second floor. Laddering the building, firefighters entered the structure and opened all windows and doors. The fan was started and the gas allowed to dissapate. It appears that some work may have been done on the gas line as a bent piece of gas pipe was found on the floor. It is likely a small hole in the pipe, now hidden behind drywall is the likely cause. The gas was shut off and home secured. Thanks to quick work, what could have been a major explosion was averted.

Structure Fire Challenges Responders

Sooke Firefighters were paged out in the early hours on Friday, Oct 7 at about 2:30 a.m. for a reported structure fire. While enroute Langford Dispatch advised that the house was fully involved and there was a possibility of someone on side. Sooke RCMP arrived first and quickly evacuated the neighbours on either side of the rapidly burning home. C-1 and B-1 arrived next and command was established. E-1 arrived on scene and went into master stream operations to try to knock down the main body of fire and protect the "D" exposure. L-1 followed soon behind and picked up a hydrant to supply E-1 with a water source. 2 hand lines were pulled as well as the mini-monitor. The fire was quickly consuming the house with sections of the roof already collapsing from the intensity of it all. E-2 arrived next on scene taking a second hydrant that supplied water to L-1 as it had positioned its aerial above the blaze and quickly put the ladder pipe into operation. E 1-2, Sq-1 and Sq-2 had now also arrived with additional firefighters. With about 2500 gallons a minute now flowing, the blaze slowly came under control. With air packs running low and manpower stretched Otter Point FD was called in for mutual aid. With 22 Sooke Firefighters, 5 Otter Point members, EHS and RCMP to assist the fire was brought under control. Hot spots continued to flare up for a couple more hours. Crews rotated out for breakfast at the fire hall. A search was not possible due to the intense fire, however it was determined from relatives that nobody was in fact home at the time of the call. Crews working the "C" side of the structure observed that the sliding glass door and kitchen window were already open on arrival. The RCMP also reported that the garage door was open on their arrival. With this suspicisious evidence in mind a security detail was arranged. Crews worked through the day with the RCMP Forensic Ident Team to look for cause and origin. It appeared likely that more than one fire may be the cause due to the amount of damage in the bedrooms. After 12 hours at the incident, the scene was turned over to the insurance adjuster who had the site fenced and secured for additional investigators to complete a more intense investigation. Further evidence of additional fire sets in the home were discovered and the fire has been ruled as arson with many agencies continuing to work on this case. Fire Crews did a remarkable job containing the fire to just the one home. One neighbouring house suffered two cracked windows from the heat, however that was the only damage outside of the original property. The house is a complete loss.

Fire Prevention Week

Today marks the start of Fire Prevention Week and Sooke Fire Rescue Service will be involved in a number of activities. On Thursday, Oct 13th from 3:30 to 8:00 pm, the fire department and emergency program will be hosting an open house. There will be displays on fire safety, emergency preparedness, tours of the station and apparatus, bounce houses, activities for kids of all ages and even refreshments. Please join us.

The next event will take place Friday and Saturday evening when firefighters team up with Andy's 2 for 1 Pizza and Sooke Home Hardware to assist residents in ensuring their homes are fire safe. Crews will be following pizza delivery vehicles within the community to those homes placing orders. On arrival at the home, firefighters will ask the residents if they can check their smoke alarms. If they work properly, the homeowner will recieve a coupon for 50% off their next pizza order. If the smoke alarm does not work, the firefighters will install new batteries. If no smoke alarm is present, crews will then install a new one at no charge. You really can't loose on this program.

Finally on Saturday, firefighters and ESS personnel will staff a booth at Home Hardware promoting fire and life safety products to customers. This will take place from 10:00 to approximately 3:00 pm or 4:00 pm. (we could still use a few more volunteers for this event)