Written by SCOTT STANFIELD
Citizen staff
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Tuesday, 27 May 2008 |
"We were lucky we had an escape route,"Captain Mark Hill said Tuesday. (Citizen photo by Brent Braaten)
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Prince George Fire Chief Jeff Rowland said conditions were just right for the largest fire in Prince George history at Canfor's North Central Plywoods mill in the BCR Site.
"It's a huge building and there's a lot of sawdust, and it's just right for a fire to take off," Rowland said Tuesday. "We thought we had the fire controlled. I was in the building about a minute before it took off. It was clear, we knew where the fire was, and the guys that were on the roof said a minute later the fire rolled out both ends of the building. In two minutes we had to get nine people off that roof."
Captain Mark Hill, noting the roof was comprised of different layers of various materials, said the situation was "a bit scary," both for the Canfor employees who started fighting the fire, and for the 16 Prince George firefighters in attendance.
Hill and the crew thought they contained the blaze after cutting a trench in the roof, a procedure he said stops fires nine times out of 10. This time, however, the flames got behind them.
"As the roof fell in in front of us it also started to fall in behind us," said Hill, who likened the noise to a "jet engine taking off.
"We lost some gear, we just dropped everything and ran. The assistant chief was the last guy, I was the second last guy. We made sure everybody was off and safe. We were lucky we had an escape route."
The 16-year firefighting veteran credits the crew for working hard, long hours.
"It's what we train for. I know it's (matter of life and death) probably in the back of the mind of every firefighter. It's just one of those things you really don't have time to think about. You make sure what you've trained for all these years is put into practice and you make sure everybody goes home safe at the end of the day."
Hill said this one was "probably one of my biggest" in 16 years of fighting fires.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 08 October 2008 )
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