Q and A with Neepawa fire chief Scott Gibson

Details

Published on Thursday, March 5, 2015

By Eoin Devereux

The Neepawa Banner

Just over a week removed from the devastating blaze that destroyed the Home Hardware building in Neepawa, Fire Department chief Scott Gibson describes exactly how the evening played out for the volunteers and emergency personnel who were the first line of defence against the flames.

When did you first receive the call?

“At around 6:13 pm, we received the initial page to a structure fire. As soon as you walked out the door that evening, you could see the smoke, so we knew we were going to something serious, right from the start. We began entry into the building. There was a key holder there who let us in. At that time, there was no smoke, no flame on the main, store level of the building. There was nothing showing on the second level, other than smoke. Upon investigation into the building, the fire was actually burning between the two shells of the old building and the new building.”

That type of scenario is a dangerous situation for a firefighter, isn’t it?

“It does [make it difficult] because usually there are no openings. There’s a crawl space hatch inside the building, that’s where we made our initial fire attack, but it’s only about a 24 inch opening. We wouldn’t send [firefighters] into that. It’s only about a two foot space from the old roof and then a three foot space from the shell between the two buildings, I guess. So guys can’t go in there and it gives you a very limited space to spray water even on the fire.”

What about the people in the apartments upstairs?

“When we arrived on scene, we were told that an employee of Home Hardware, who also lived upstairs, had checked the apartments. Told everyone what was going on. Everyone was accounted for. Basically, what I had been told was that there were six people that lived up there. some of them were away, but everyone was accounted for early in the effort.”

So what happened when the firefighters were ordered out?

“Yeah, we continued to attack it until the ceiling started falling in on the bottom floor. Just the tiles and stuff. We called everyone out and basically started making a plan for a defensive plan of attack.”

What did that involve?

“At one point, we were pulling away the propane tanks. Moved them away from the building. We then starting setting the trucks up, because there was no way we could actually attack the fire from outside the building when it was in that space. That’s when we pulled out, set up the trucks. We had them on four different hydrants to get the maximum volume. Then we set up a lot of hose lines in preparation of the defence. Basically at that point, there was nothing we could do until it broke through the roof or out the sides.”

Why was an excavator brought in to take down a portion of the structure?

“We called Pat Baker in to take out the greenhouse space between the two buildings. That saved us a lot of work and potential issues later on, because there were three other buildings nearby and it could have spread. The other major concern was the hydro pole in the back lane. We had Manitoba Hydro come in fairly early. They were telling us that if that pole went down, the town of Neepawa could have been without power for an hour or two until there was a workaround. That was a major effort, to save that hydro pole in the back lane.”

With so many emergency crews on the scene, how difficult is it to organize communication?

“Organizing a situation like this, it becomes very demanding. Basically, myself will look after all that. Pat Baker, public works staff. We had to let the water treatment plant go. It’s estimated, we used about a million litres of water at that fire. So to keep the hog plant going, they have to come in and start producing water like crazy as well.”

After the greenhouse space was cleared and the fire finally broke through, what happened next? Because, on the scene, it seemed to flare up, then die out, then flare up again.

“When it breaks through, like a wall or the ceiling, it gets that gust of oxygen and then it gets that big flare up. It’ll then burn whatever material that is there and then die down. As the fire spreads, it’ll find a new source. I mean, at one point, there was the sound of popping, almost like popcorn. That was the sound of ammunition going off in the corner. While it is a concern, it’s not a major concern because there is no barrel to force that velocity in a certain direction. It’s basically just a little mini explosion of gun powder. It sounded like a war zone at one point just with the ‘bang, bang, bang, bang!’, but it’s really not that scary of a thing. The propane tanks that were in front of the building were actually more of a scare for us, because they could blow up.”

How many people were working on the scene for the fire department?

“We have 24 volunteers in Neepawa. We also, very early on called in a crew from Minnedosa and a crew from Gladstone. We ended up using Gladstone’s truck, as well while we kept Minnedosa’s on standby, just in case. Basically what we needed was man-power so that we could rotate through over a prolonged scene. We set up shifts. Sending three or four guys back to the firehall. There was food, sandwiches donated from the community. [The firefighters] would take 15 or 20 minutes and then be back. The thing about that night as well was that it was very cold and as the night went on, it seems to get colder and windier. And of course guys get tired too. It’s good to keep fresh bodies on the front line.”

After a few hours of battling the blaze, past midnight, into the early morning. What’s the protocol at that point?

“As we shifted into the early morning, the biggest part of the fire is completed. Basically, it’s just there to knock down the big flames, keep it under control. It was a windy night. If this had happened in the summer months, with the amount of ash that was flying around town, I think we would have had little small fires all over town to deal with.”

Final thoughts on the evening?

“We had a great turnout [of volunteer firefighters]. Out of our entire crew, there were only two that weren’t there, and that was because they were out of town. Working with Minnedosa and Gladstone. Everything worked very well. All the departments. RCMP and Hydro were on the scene, working with us. If hydro had gone down, it would have left communications at the firehall down temporally. RCMP were concerned with power going down. It could have turned into a domino effect, but in a lot of ways there were things that worked in our favour that weren’t in our control. I want to say thank you to the community. We had food donated to us. Brought from the local churches and Tim Hortons, Subway and the Yellowhead Arena. I know I’m forgetting some and I’m sorry for that, but the firehall was full of food. It was very much appreciated. The community in that way took very good care of us.”