by Sandy McCormick In driving through the course of life, Texada Islander Gord Roberts, 60, admits to always preferring the side streets.
His career with Finning Canada allowed him to take his work in different directions and do things he liked. Now retired, the chief of Van Anda Volunteer Fire Department (VAVFD) and Texada Rescue (TR) is finding new ways to better deliver fire protection and emergency response services on the island.
Born in Edmonton, Roberts grew up in Vernon and Kamloops, where he attended college to become a marine biologist. During a summer job, he learned to operate heavy equipment, with which he became fascinated. This led him to Nelson, where he became a heavy duty mechanic. “I love mechanical equipment of all types, from power generation to repairing locomotives. I enjoy taking things apart and putting them back together again.”
In 1977, he joined Finning and moved to Vancouver in 1980 to redo the company’s apprenticeship program to meet new requirements. There, he met his future wife Judy Moore, and they were married in 1983. His 32-year career with Finning spanned 14 different positions, mostly management and related to engines. He worked on business development projects such as power generation on four continents: North and South America, Asia and Europe. It was while working on a power generation system in the Yukon he met a colleague from Lasqueti Island. As the two hiked under the northern lights, Roberts heard about life on Lasqueti and he decided he wanted to live there.
While he and Judy were looking for real estate on Lasqueti, they stumbled upon Texada, which they’d seen while sailing to and from Desolation Sound in previous years. They fell in love with a little waterfront house in Van Anda, which they bought in 2005 and moved into permanently when Roberts retired in 2008.
One day Roberts saw a notice that the VAVFD was looking for new members. “My career was always so busy that I never had a chance to give something back to the community,” Roberts recalled. “I work well under pressure and once I checked out the fire hall and saw the trucks and heavy equipment, I knew I had something to offer. There are very few things I can’t operate.”
In 2008, Roberts assisted with VAVFD organizational issues and helped put the annual budget together. He identified an upcoming problem with the department’s primary response vehicle, which was too old for insurance purposes. He wrote the specifications for a new vehicle, shopped around to get the best price and received approval from Van Anda ratepayers to finance the purchase, which will be paid off in 2014. The new truck, built in Abbotsford, arrived in 2010.
Roberts took a five-month fire and rescue training program in Powell River, as well as officer-level programs in emergency management, mass evacuations and mass casualty incidents. He became a member of TR, which primarily assists in road accidents, and was named chief of both VAVFD and TR in 2009.
“Ours is a crew of highly motivated and dedicated folks who treat themselves with respect,” he said. “As chief, I’ve tried to create a department environment where it’s safe to practice and learn together and where we are constantly improving the execution of what we do. There’s a real camaraderie in doing something together to benefit the community.”
There are four issues facing the department that Roberts is working on: response times, recruitment, fundraising and Texada’s confusing house numbering system.
The island’s BC Ambulance Service paramedics all live near Van Anda, but the ambulance was kept in Gillies Bay until recently. To improve response times, the ambulance is now kept at the RV park in Van Anda.
Recruitment of new members is a particular concern because of Texada’s aging demographics. Roberts believes that merging the VAVFD and the Gillies Bay Volunteer Fire Department into one island-wide fire department would be sensible. “We need 14 firefighters for a simple house structural fire, for example. It took both departments working together to combat the recent blaze at Shelter Point Park. If we had a large coverage area, we could recruit members from a larger population.”
Fundraising is an ongoing issue, Roberts explained. “It takes $30,000 worth of apparel to outfit a 20-person crew and we also need gear and equipment beyond what property taxes can fund.”
Regarding Texada’s house numbering system, many numbers are not in sequential order and some properties have no numbers at all. “With many new emergency responders in the last 10 years, this system needs to be updated and rationalized. If you call us, we need to be able to find you.”
