By Alex Cooper
Pioneer Staff
Firefighters spent all weekend battling a raging inferno that destroyed 16 townhomes at Panorama Mountain Village.
The fire broke out shortly after midnight Saturday in the 300 block of the Horsethief complex and destroyed two buildings before finally being extinguished late Saturday afternoon.
“What’s most distressing is all the memories that are gone,” said Marke Dickson, marketing manager at Panorama. “More than anything we’re concerned about the people who live there, and we’ll be touching base with them over the next few days.”
The fire was reported shortly after midnight by a nearby resident and fi re crews arrived just moments later. Sixteen people were evacuated.
The fire started in unit 310, in the second building from the end of the row. Th e fire quickly expanded through the block into the roof structure and through the floor.
Within two hours it had spread into the adjacent building through a hallway connecting the two blocks, engulfing both buildings in fl ames.
Ron Hillborn, who was on his honeymoon with his wife Cindy, was renting a townhouse from High Country Properties right across from the fire. He woke up to see flames leap across the corridor from one building to the next.
“It was amazing how it went up all of a sudden, like a matchstick,” he said.
By 2 a.m the fire inside the first building had been put out and firefighters were just battling the blaze on the roof, said Martin Caldwell, the Panorama fire chief.
However, they faced a major challenge. Two years ago, during renovations, a new roof was placed over the old one and the fire was still burning in the space between the two roofs.
They were also shorthanded, as Mr. Caldwell and several other firefighters were away at a conference in Castlegar, BC and did not arrive back at Panorama until 6:30 a.m.
At first the fire didn’t appear to be serious to nearby residents. Katie Wallace, who lives in one of the Toby Creek condos across from Horsethief, heard the alarms around 1:30 a.m. and stumbled out of bed to see what was happening.
“The second building from the end was on fire, but there were no flames and the fire looked to be out,” she said.
She went back to sleep thinking things were under control.
Elaine and Peter Buckley, an English couple who were in Panorama finishing a three-week Canadian vacation, were wakened by the commotion at about 1:30 a.m.
“There were no flames at that point,” said Mr. Buckley. “There was just smoke coming out of one of the buildings and the firemen were dousing it with water.”
Herb and Gertie Wylhuizen of Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, have owned a timeshare at Panorama since 1986. They watched the fire until 2:30 a.m. before going to bed.
“We figured it would be out in the morning,” said Mr. Wylhuizen.
However, the fire had taken hold in the space between the two roofs and was actually strengthening.
By 2 a.m. crews from Invermere and Windermere had arrived to help battle
the blaze.
Jim Miller, the Windermere fire chief, was leaving the Bull Riding event in Invermere when he first heard about the fire. An hour later he got a call for help, and arrived with two members of his detachment shortly before 2 a.m.
When they arrived, the fi rst building was already gutted and the fire was creeping into the next building to the east, at the end of the row.
“The fight was to try and save the second building,” he said. “Our goal was to keep the
outside wet so it didn’t spread.”
Support was also provided by Radium Fire Department and the Department of Forestry Services, who provided foam and other equipment.
By 7 a.m. the inner building had burned down and the outer one was in flames. When Herb Wylhuizen woke up in the morning, he was amazed at how much the fire had spread. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Ms. Wallace also woke to see huge flames coming out of the building.
“It’s pretty disastrous and we’re all pretty shocked by it,” she said.
In total 35 firefighters battled the fire, rotating in and out to give people a chance to rest. They sprayed well over 100,000 gallons of water on the fire to keep it from spreading.
“We had water problems and had drained the reservoir to dangerously low levels by 7 a.m.,” said Mr. Caldwell. “We had to slow water application and the decision was made to let the roof burn.”
They had used so much water that when Mr. Hillborn went to get his car out of the underground parking garage in the morning he had to wade through water up to his ankles. He said the fire put a damper on his honeymoon.
“My wife is a little scared right now,” he said on Saturday.
Fourteen hours after the fire started, flames were still leaping out of the outer building and the roof was still burning.
Firefighters kept a close watch on the fire Saturday as it continued to smolder and it wasn’t until Sunday morning that the fire was out cold.
Mr. Dickson credits the volunteer firefighters with limiting the damage. With over 200 units in the Horsethief and Toby Creek complexes, the outcome could have been a lot worse.
Fire Chief Miller agreed. “The Panorama guys who were there first did one heck of a job containing it.”
High Country Properties manages three rental units in the buildings, two of which were rented out at the time.
High Country Properties owner John Newton said one group was wakened and evacuated, while the other group wasn’t home but lost all their belongings in the fire.
None of the units was equipped with sprinklers or had fire alarms tied into a central alarm system.
The cause of the fire is unknown.
“We’re still investigating,” said Mr. Caldwell. “We’re confident it wasn’t anything suspicious, and it was most likely accidental.”
The last major fire at Panorama happened in 1981 when the Toby Creek condos went up in flames. That fire also destroyed the same block of townhomes that burned in Saturday’s fire.
Andrew McCutcheon, a Panorama firefighter who was up all night battling the flames, said the last fire he remembers at Panorama was seven years ago. “This certainly blows that one away.”
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Fairmont incorporation nixed by provincial government
By Alex Cooper
Pioneer Staff
A proposal by the Fairmont Community Association to incorporate Fairmont Hot Springs has been rejected by the provincial government.
“Despite the community’s frustration with the ineffectiveness of current avenues for dealing with local issues, and the desire to explore other options, expressed explicitly in Th e Fairmont Community’s appeal to the Minister for the study, the request was denied flat,” said Tracy Connery, editor of the local newsletter called the Fairmont Range Gazette.
The issues brought up included the lack of public parks, trails and facilities; shortage of aff ordable housing; and road management.
Minister of Community Services Ida Chong, in her written response, said: “Although these are important issues to many residents of Fairmont, it is not clear that municipal incorporation off ers a vehicle for actually addressing the majority.”
Lillian Rose, director for Area F of the Regional District of East Kootenay, said residents must demonstrate support for incorporation before the ministry will proceed. She said she has requested the ministry provide a facilitator to help determine if there is the support for incorporation.
“The government will look at the pros and cons of incorporation,” she said. “There’s a huge financial component to it. They have to look at what is desired in the future and whether or not incorporation can make that happen.”
Fairmont isn’t the only town in the region looking at incorporation. A group of Windermere residents is having discussions, although local man Rod Turnbull described the talks as “street-corner conversations” and said nothing formal has been arranged.
“Right now we have no control over our destiny,” he said. “Someone in Sparwood can cast a vote aff ecting us.”
Another Windermere resident, Doug Anakin, agreed that the goal is increased local autonomy. “We would like to have a little more say than we get with the regional district right now,” he said. “We’re missing that local step that’s possible if you’re incorporated.”
Both men expressed concerns with the Windermere Water and Sewer Company, a private company providing sewage services to residents in Windermere.
“Where was tender process? Who monitors the cost?” asked Mr. Turnbull. “There is no public utility committee to monitor the cost and we have nothing to compare it to.”
The group is discussing three options:
1. Incorporating Windermere alone;
2. Incorporating the entire east shore of the lake;
3. Joining with Invermere in an regional municipality encompassing all of Area F.
The latter idea is supported by Invermere Mayor Mark Shmigelsky.
“Ultimately, if I can convince everybody, the goal is a larger municipality,” he said. “It will allow us to get stuff done we haven’t been able to before and gives everyone more clout with upper levels of government.”
Ms. Rose agreed that there are benefits to regional incorporation. “It would provide more local autonomy and provide access to funding only available to incorporated municipalities,” she said.
Mr. Shmigelsky is proposing a regional municipality encompassing Invermere, Panorama, Windermere, and Fairmont. He proposes representatives on council from each area and one overall mayor.
“Having five mayors and councillors, plus administrative staff for each municipality, is a waste of taxpayers’ money.”
He said regional incorporation would also make it easier to tackle issues such as aff ordable housing, and the protection of Lake Windermere.
However, in Windermere, some residents would like to look at going at it alone first.
“Before studying amalgamation, we should see benefi ts of forming our own municipality,” said Mr. Anakin. “If you make it bigger first, you’ve lost the opportunity for a smaller municipality.”
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