For those of you who do not know - the Killiney Beach and Westshore water systems do not have backup generators. This means when we lose power, we only have the water that sits in the reservoirs at the time of the outage. Without generators powering the lift system the reservoir levels are not being replenished.
In the days leading up to the fire entering our communities our area director and former fire chief of 20 years requested that backup generators be brought in for the Killiney and Westshore water systems. The RDCO Director of Engineering at first thought this was not necessary but within a few days he apologized to our area director and agreed that generators were needed and made the arrangements to have them delivered. In a wildfire situation loss of power is pretty much guaranteed, either by hydro shutting it down or by burning lines.
That fateful night, as our communities burned, many of us listened, glued to the scanner as our firefighters bravely fought this catastrophic fire. We could hear they “had no water left” and were sending tankers to OKIB and to the south for water, a trip that takes approximately a half hour.
This had us wondering what happened to the water? With the generators running, the only conclusion was that the pump house must have burned down, however, the following day we received confirmation that the pump house was not damaged - so what happened to the water supply?
Fast forward to coming home. We began talking to residents who had stayed behind, residents who had lost their homes and residents who had camera systems recording the activity leading up to the fire entering our communities.
We also spoke with firefighters from several departments and various RDCO water system operators. With several residents expressing their suspicions along with the information we gathered it became unbelievably apparent that the generators were never connected.
The proof of that came on September 20th when an NWCA Board member had a conversation with an RDCO employee at the Killiney Beach pump house who confirmed that the generators were not hooked up the night hellfire devastated our communities. This same employee said he waited at the roadblock for over 3 hours that night to come in and connect the generators and was denied access because he was told “it was too dangerous”.
Too dangerous to allow access for vital firefighting services yet we have documented proof that earlier that day our fire chief was personally escorting residents into the community to retrieve ATV’s. With the fire visible above Killiney at that time you would think that getting the electrician in would be the main priority. The RDCO electrician confirmed that he connected the generators a couple days AFTER the fire destroyed 79 homes and ravaged our communities.
The RDCO Fire Services Manager failed our firefighters and the RDCO failed us all by employing an incompetent fire services manager.
WE CAN’T IMAGINE HOW OUR FIREFIGHTERS FELT WHEN THEY PULLED THE LAST DROP OF WATER FROM THE SYSTEM.
79 OF OUR RESIDENTS LOST THEIR HOMES. HOW MANY OF THOSE MIGHT HAVE BEEN SAVED WITH WATER IN OUR HYDRANTS?
THE KILLINEY BEACH WATER SYSTEM WAS DRAINED DURING OUR FIREFIGHTERS EFFORTS WHICH CREATED NEGATIVE PRESSURE IN THE SYSTEM RESULTING IN OUR LENGTHY “DO NOT CONSUME ORDER”.
The North Westside Community Association (NWCA) sent a letter on Oct. 7th to the RDCO Director of Engineering. We decided to feign knowledge that the generators were not connected and instead ask for clarification as to how the water system could be drained with generators powering the system. We received no reply.
On Oct. 12th an NWCA Board member followed up with a phone call - by this time they knew we were aware that the generators were not connected and the RDCO Director of Engineering told our board member that “it doesn’t matter, it would not have made a difference”. The board member asked him to please respond to the NWCA email with his explanation and he replied he would do that the next day. We have still received no response.
To say that connecting the generators “doesn’t matter and would not have made a difference” is ridiculous. But, they have to tell us something, and we guess they decided to go with that. If that is correct, “it would not have made a difference” then why did they try so hard to get water, starting with scrambling to get the electrician in, trucking water in from a distance and having an RDCO water operator monitoring the levels of water in the reservoirs as the firefighters used it.
We are speculating here but believe the water levels were being monitored so they could tell them when to stop pulling to avoid damage to the system, unfortunately that connection was lost and all the water was pulled from the system resulting in negative pressure.
The RDCO has had many opportunities to be forthcoming with the truth:
- at any of their Zoom meetings before and after we were allowed back into the community.
- every single time any resident asked what happened to the water system.
- The RDCO Engineering services manager, in conversation with a resident regarding the state of the water system. Summary posted on Oct. 6th.
- the “water talk” portion of your water bill where the RDCO tells us, “The reason for the “do not consume” notice was that during firefighting efforts the system was compromised and lost pressure on a few occasions.”
The system was “compromised” because the RDCO Fire Services Manager failed to connect the generators to the Killiney water system. He had several days to get the electrician in to connect the generators and ensure a steady water supply - the most basic firefighting need.
Even on the day of Aug. 15th, with the forecast predicting high winds and the fire burning right behind upper Killiney the Fire Services Manager should have used a bit of common sense and fire preparedness and called the electrician in to ensure the crucial connection of the generators. It should have been done before this but even on that day he could have instructed our fire chief to escort the electrician in - as mentioned previously, the fire chief was escorting residents in that day to retrieve ATV’s.
This is another example of the RDCO’s ineptitude when it comes to understanding our rural landscape and the needs of our communities by recruiting inexperienced employees who do not have the knowledge or awareness that is required to satisfy even the most basic qualifications of these vital positions.
We have more questions that we are expecting to be answered:
- why was our MOBILE Marine water supply, our fireboat, held in the boathouse pumping water for almost the entire fire incident. In fact, the only time it was set free to serve it’s primary purpose of protecting areas along the lakeshore without adequate water supply was when the connection pumping water up Hodges Rd. was lost. The boat was released to do what it does best, save homes, and it did save some homes, however, within an hour the hose connection was repaired and the boat was called back to pump water again. Sure, pumping water is something the MOBILE Marine water supply (fireboat) can do but it was never intended to be chained to the boathouse acting as a pump while the homes it was meant to protect burned down. A pump should have been brought in or they could have used an engine/pumper truck to pump water thereby freeing the fireboat. Another serious error in judgement by our fire services manager?
- why were our structural protection sprinkler systems left sitting useless in the hall when BC Wildfire was deploying theirs within the community. If these sprinkler systems had been deployed through the lakeside communities, such as Estamont, the fireboat could have been connecting to the hoses feeding the sprinkler systems and soaking these areas multiple times a day, as was the original intended purpose of the fireboat with the threat of approaching wildfire. This, along with using the monitor to protect the immediate lakeshore properties is the purpose of the fireboat. Who told our firefighters they could not deploy those sprinklers and use the fireboat to supply water to that system? Did BC Wildfire rent our fireboat and therefore call the shots?
- what criteria did the RDCO use to hire our new fire chief? What is his job description? What was his involvement with incident command within our own community? It seems highly unfair to him, our firefighters and our residents to expect a person with no wildfire/interface experience or training to be put in a command position.
In our opinion, the RDCO is an antiquated power structure which continually seeks to marginalize the people of the North Westside. But this… this takes incompetence to a whole new level.
No forgiveness.
TO ALL OUR FIREFIGHTERS - YOU HAVE OUR UNWAVERING RESPECT AND GRATITUDE. THANK YOU!
*Sorry for the length of this post but there is a lot to say. We wanted to post to our community first because you deserve to know before hearing it from the media and because we wanted you all to know what we are sending to the media. Sometimes, as you well know, what you say to the media is not always what is presented to the public.