A strong windstorm back on the evening of Sept. 27 knocked down a large tree that landed directly in the middle of Quatsino's fire hall, destroying it.
"Just after midnight some people heard a loud noise and they checked it out and it was gone," said Quatsino resident Gwen Hansen.
Quatsino is about a 15-minute boat ride from the Village of Coal Harbour and has a population of roughly 50 residents, about 200 holiday/seasonal homes, and four fishing lodges. The community has no formal volunteer firefighters, residents just pitch in and help out whenever they can, and they've been using the fire hall to store Honda fire pumps and emergency supplies.
A special community meeting was held on Oct. 4 to address what to do next, where Hansen noted in an email to the North Island Gazette the following resolutions were agreed to:
1. The regional district will be contacted to let them know the community will not be requesting funds through community taxation, as donations of cash and volunteer labour coming in should cover immediate needs;
2. Cash donations will be accepted and set aside for fire hall purposes only;
3. Nate and Chelsea Johns will be contacted to gratefully accept their offer to donate an 8x20 foot sea-can, plus its transport to Coal Harbour; and
4. The firefighting equipment (and solar lights) will be moved to a corner of the recycling depot where it will be easily accessible until the sea-can is setup on the site where the old fire hall was located.
"We decided the building will be demolished and hauled away," confirmed Hansen. "That way we can reuse the cement pad and put up a new foundation on it."
Hansen added the sea-can won't be sent to the remote community until December, but once it's in place on top of the cement pad, "if a tree falls on it, it's not gonna hurt it."
If you'd like to donate to Quatsino's fire hall restoration project, e-transfers can be sent to quatsino.residents.organization@gmail.com
