Firefighters Scramble to Save the Hall

Who says Firefighters are trained in all aspects of emergencies? They are, but it is not every day they have to deal with water flooding their place of work, specially from below ground. Big White ski resort in British Columbia is where this all took place. The Big White firefighters had their hands full for a few hours Monday morning getting the flooding under control. It appears a water main pipe broke uphill from the Big White Fire Department, causing water to come roaring down the hill and through the main floor of the fire hall.
Steve Heim, a local resident that lives in Stonebridge Lodge, a condominium complex close to the firehall said "I live in Stonebridge and I could hear water rushing down the side of the mountain so I walked up to see what the situation was and I saw all this water running into the fire hall and they were trying to keep the water out so I helped do some sandbagging." Big White Deputy Chief, Chris Cormack, said a 12-inch water main burst just after 9:30 a.m. so the whole crew had to scramble to prevent the water from damaging the fire hall. "We had some water come into our bays where we park our trucks”. There appeared to be no major damage within the hall. Steve Heim also mentioned that he has a home on the lake in Kelowna. With all the recent high water levels after record snowfalls and summer heat waves, he is all too familiar with sandbagging over the last two years so he stepped in to help the guys with the technique of filling and properly closing the sandbags before stacking. Seeming to be a very simple task to accomplish there is definitely a correct and a poor way to complete the task. “Open, fill, fold over the end, toss on the pile while staggering the joints”. Thats how Steve said its done. Big White resort is the third largest resort in British Columbia, after Whistler-Blackcomb and Sun Peaks. Big White, which is located 56 km (35 mi) southeast of Kelowna in the Southern Interior of British Columbia. Winter brings skiers, hikers and snow boarders from around the world. Summer brings similar activities such as hiking, cycling and plain enjoying the outdoors . The city of Kelowna, which is down along the shores of Lake Okanagan in the Okanagan Valley is also a gorgeous area for winter and summer activities. As mentioned, snow skiing and boarding up at Big White draws tourists and locals. Snowmobiling is also very popular since the area offers many mountain ranges to explore. Summer brings out the boating enthusiast far and wide. Wine enthusiast love the area as well as it boasts more than twenty wineries. These wineries produce some of the best wines in Canada. Summerhill Pyramid Winery, Quails’ Gate and Cedarcreek Estate Winery are just a few. Thanks to these and other hard working firefighters, some that had to sandbag their hall as seen in the video, are well respected for keeping this area safe. Kelowna is well known for it’s abundance of summer forest fires since it is quite arid in the summer months. Keep up the good work fellas, keep Kelowna safe!