Richmond News August 16 2017

Page 1

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 16, 2017

Closed Aug 21 & 28

n A huge fire erupted at a Steveston Harbour wharf on Saturday evening, causing the nearby Richmond Maritime Festival to close early. Nineteen firefighters and two harbour employees, in tandem with RCMSAR on boats, tackled the blaze, preventing the building from collapsing into the Fraser River. @jpanago Twitter photo

What’s inside:

NEWS: Celebration of life planned for popular community advocate 3

Fire boat crew hailed

Steveston building saved by quick-thinking workers Staff Reporter

GWOOD@RICHMOND-NEWS.COM

A

n entire warehouse could have collapsed into the Fraser River, if not for two Steveston Harbour Authority workers on their fire boat. According to the harbour’s general manager, Jaime Da Costa, a loading wharf was completely destroyed and the warehouse partly ruined in a blaze Saturday evening, which caused the Richmond Maritime Festival to close early. The building that caught fire, said Da Costa, is actually the old Colonial Cannery building, built in 1895. Thankfully, she added, only a small portion will need repairs. Things could have been worse, she said, had the harbour not deployed its firefighting boat, operated by Jim Jones and Carl Lund,

two harbour authority employees. Richmond News 19 firefighters responded to “These are two everyday heroes for us,” said the one-alarm blaze and quickly isolated it. Da Costa. However, due to the creosote on the docks, Without the boat and additional help from there were stubborn spot fires that required Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue, extra attention. The creosote also played a part Da Costa said Richmond Fire Rescue told her in the City of Richmond closing the festival the entire warehouse could have early over air quality concerns. collapsed into the river. “The dock is quite badly “Without that effort, things damaged,” said Wilkinson, These are two every- who added that a preliminary could have been a lot worse,” she said. investigation points to a posday heroes for us. Firefighters quickly contained sible electrical fire sparking the fire that ripped through the blaze. – Jaime Da Costa the Paramount docks of the “The building isn’t damaged Steveston Harbour harbour authority at around 5 too badly. It was going quite p.m. as visitors to Steveston well by the time the crews got enjoyed festivities at the nearby on the scene. Britannia Heritage Shipyard. “The creosote holds the fire. That takes a By 5:30 p.m., thick black smoke billowed longer time to put out the spot fires.” from the dock and the adjacent warehouse full There were no reported injuries, said of fishing gear. Wilkinson. This was the third major fire at the Deputy Fire Chief Tim Wilkinson told the harbour this year, said Da Costa.

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