Mayor Praises Fire Fighters

Tuesday, May 27, 2008 02:54 PM

Prince George, B.C. - The Local State of Emergency has been rescinded although firefighters still battle flames under a stack of MDF board in the Interior Warehousing building.

Mayor Colin Kinsley and Fire Chief Jeff Rowland met with members of the media at the Interior Warehousing site, and the Mayor didn't miss an opportunity to praise the Prince George fire department "Things could have been much worse, if our Prince George Firefighters hadn't done such an excellent job."

The Mayor says he will work towards having Canfor rebuild the mill.

(click here or on photo for video of the Mayor's comments, followed by Fire Chief Rowland's description of the complexity of the blaze at North Central Plywood)

Fire Chief Jeff Rowland and firefighter Jeff Hill told reporters how they had arrived on the scene at North Central Plywood to find Canfor firefighers on scene. "The sound of the fire was like a jet engine" says Hill, who hasn't been off the job since arriving on the scene at 5:45 last evening.

Chief Rowland and Hill were the last two to leave that building as the roof started to collapse.

Rowland says crews continue to battle the fiore at Interior Warehousing as there is a hot spot under a pile of MDF boards. "We will remain on scene until all hot spots have been extinguished" says Rowland.

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Posted on Tuesday, May 27, 2008 02:54 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: BCRacer on May 27 2008 6:04 PM

Cudoes to a fine bunch of fire fighters.
Well trained , and dedication, got them through what could have been a real disaster.
Sleep well tonight, you all earned it.

Posted by: tinyapplecork on May 27 2008 6:58 PM

Ditto! Great job by ALL.

Posted by: wrinkledawg on May 27 2008 8:26 PM

Hats off to them boys, Job well done.

Posted by: Eagleone on May 28 2008 3:13 AM

Had the wind been a little off to the West and these ambers were landing on the roofs of homes full of sleeping people it could have been much worse. I think the media, especially radio dropped the ball on this one and the emergency response should have been alerting the community to the potential hazards through some form of communication with the community at large.

I guess all the excitement was at the fire and not thinking about the potential. Who knows how many catastrophes we could have had if all the focus was on the BCR site, while sleeping homes everywhere fell victim to a floating death sentence from the sky. Or better yet lets say the embers were not a concern (as it turns out they surely were), lets say the ambers were not a concern and the 2nd, 3rd fires ect were arson... then shouldn't the community be on alert at that time, and if not, shouldn't the community be notified as to the level of concern they should have when you have three massive mushroom clouds floating over the city with fires visible from miles away.

IMO this was handled worse than the ice jam flood on River Road... and I didn't think that was possible.

Posted by: zoom on May 28 2008 8:15 AM

Eagleone, your post makes little sense. What good would radio/communication do if people were sleeping? I know most probably do not listen or watch any form of media while asleep. In addition to that, I am sure most people in the 'dangerzone', certainly heard emergency vehicles and saw a lot of smoke etc. from the BCR site, probably enough notification something was up. Kudos to the resposnse teams!!

Posted by: lostfaith on May 28 2008 11:00 AM

Yes indeed there needs to be some type of emergency notification system in place here.
Perhaps air raid type sirens that would "wake" people up and then we could tune in to local radio or television to hear what is happening.

Posted by: metalman on May 28 2008 3:36 PM

Interesting comments, I think. Hmm.
Photo op for Mr. Kinsley.
The fire fighters were, and are, doing their jobs. For them, a more exciting day than usual, that's all.
metalman.

Posted by: tinyapplecork on May 28 2008 7:17 PM

Our mayor was doing his job too! The response to this was appropriate. Again, well done!

Posted by: maxwell on May 28 2008 9:13 PM

It was not a bloody photo op - geez the guy is retired already. He has a concern for our town!!
It was a crappy day for all, can't we just accept a genuine concern and heartfelt thanks for a job done as well as could be done? Good God.