Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Pemberton Fire Rescue sees increased activity

Department sees 160 calls in 2010 compared with 155 in 2009

Pemberton council got a report Tuesday from Russell Mack, chief of Pemberton Fire Rescue and head of the Village's public works department.

He told council that the fire department saw a slight increase in activity between 2009 and 2010, with 160 calls compared to the previous year's total of 155. In 2010 it got 29 calls for ambulance assistance compared with 27 in 2009; 22 false alarms compared with 20 the previous year; and 50 motor vehicle accidents compared with the 2009 total of 39.

Most of the incidents took place in the Village of Pemberton - 75 incidents compared with 65 in 2009. Other areas included Mount Currie and the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District.

"The numbers aren't that much different from 2009 to 2010," Mack said at the meeting. "I think it was a fairly standard year. The thing we've experienced in the last, say, ten years, if you look at chimney fires, we had two in 2009, with fire inspections now and all the advertising that we do prior to the wood-burning season, they've come down dramatically.

"When I first started here, in the December Christmas time, we'd get a ton in a two-week period. Obviously those turn into house fires. That has definitely come down."