Providing fire protection is not as simple as stretching a boundary according to Ryan Thoms, manager of emergency services for Powell River Regional Emergency Program.
In early April RCMP responded to the report of a cabin fire near Mermaid Cove adjacent to Saltery Bay Provincial Park.
The cabin was not in a fire protection area, so despite efforts by ministry of forests and range wildfire fighters, who are not trained to extinguish structural fires, the cabin burned to the ground. No one was injured in the fire, but the incident points out that not all areas within the Powell River Regional District are covered by fire protection.
The closest fire protection area, covered by Malaspina Volunteer Fire Department, ends quite a bit north of the provincial park at the viewpoint south of Roberts Road on Highway 101, said Thoms.
“Ambulance and police go everywhere,” he said, “but fire departments have to stick closely to their service areas. If they do provide service outside, it’s not done lightly.”
There have been past discussions about what to do about the situation at Saltery Bay, where residents not covered and neither is the BC Ferries terminal. Unfortunately, no workable solution has been found. Thoms added that the first step in establishing fire protection at Saltery Bay would be calls from the residents who live there.
“It’s not just as simple as saying that we could move the fire protection area down there,” he said. Factors like volunteer fire department response times and distances play key roles for rural fire departments like the ones in the regional district.
“It becomes a big challenge when you’re spread over big areas like that,” Thoms added. “It’s not us that make up those rules.”
Fire area boundaries are generally governed by the Fire Underwriters Survey of Canada, an organization which sets the rules that many insurance companies follow.
“If you don’t have a fire department there is an immediate impact to your [home] insurance,” Thoms said.
He added that without a fire hall at Saltery Bay, homeowners would not likely see any reduction in their fire insurance premiums even if the service area was extended.
He explained that there are a number of places in the regional district that face similar circumstances including Blubber Bay on Texada Island. Despite having two fire departments on the island, there are large parts of Texada that are considered “unprotected,” Thoms said.
“This repeats itself as soon as you’re a couple of kilometres off the highway,” he added, “so that includes a lot of recreation places.”
