A fire that destroyed a building at the Francois Lake ferry terminal has been ruled non-suspicious by investigators.
The blaze broke out Monday evening in a large storage shed owned by Prince George's Waterbridge Equipment Inc., the builders and operators of the Francois Lake ferry. Within half an hour the building was fully destroyed by the fire.
"Nothing criminal in nature was associated to that incident," said Burns Lake RCMP Staff Sgt. Grant MacDonald. "The Southside Volunteer Fire Department is conducting their own investigation on that, but since the damage was so significant I am not sure what evidence would be there. Those who were involved in owning the building and fighting the fire have indicated there was no suspicion of foul play."
Waterbridge's manager of ferry services Mark Neave went to the scene as soon as he heard the emergency call. He said it was quickly determined that no one was in the building, so the next issue became the lakeshore less than 100 feet from the building.
"Environmental danger became the major issue after we knew it was under control and no people were in danger," he told The Citizen. He praised the SVFD for having the presence of mind to spray almost no water on the fire. "They used foam instead, which was really impressive presence of mind. Water would have done the trick, there was no shortage of it, but it would have taken 10 times as much, and it would have caused a lot of runoff. Using the foam put the fire out with no runoff at all, so nothing made it into the lake."
The shed was used for storage of oils, tools, spare parts and various equipment for operating the ferry and keeping the grounds.
NEW 911
The Southside of Francois Lake is new to the 911 system. Neave said "this was our first time putting it to the test."
Prior to 911, each emergency responder agency had their own separate phone number and had to be contacted individually for incidents.
"This time, with one call we had the fire department here in only a few minutes, the ambulance arrived right behind them from the station at Danskin, and the RCMP and BC Hydro were on the next ferry sailing from the north side. It worked really well," he said. "The ambulance wasn't needed, in the end, but the fire department did a great job. They are a very professional group of boys and girls. It all worked just like you'd see out of a textbook."
Ferry service was not disrupted by the fire and Waterbridge is already retooling, Neave said.
