EVERY MEMBER OF THE OLIVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPARTMENT has been suspended following an incident where six kegs of beer were taken into “protective custody” at a building fire.
Chief Janzen looks through the rubble of the Mesa Hotel. (Western News photo)
It began on May 23 when a fire destroyed the Mesa Hotel and Bar in downtown Oliver. The firefighters on the scene felt that the kegs should be taken to the fire hall to be stored until “security was properly established” at the fire scene. They also felt that the pressurized tanks were a danger. It wasn’t a problem until two of the kegs were tapped, though. The first one had been damaged in handling from the fire and didn’t work. But the second keg flowed ok.
When the fire chief found out about it, he wrote a letter to the hotel’s owner explaining what happened and apologized publicly for it. The FD also claims to have reimbursed the hotelier for the missing suds. They further announced that three of the department’s 35 members had been suspended for the incident.
The aggrieved owner however, wasn’t mollified in the least. The Western News reports:
Mesa Hotel operator Don Kazakoff disputed the statement about reimbursement.Kazakoff said on their way to save the beer, the firemen would have had to walk past a large nitrogen welding bottle, CO2 beverage dispenser tanks and two 25-pound propane tanks that were all full. He added with a keg serving 500 glasses, it is suspicious why only a couple of firefighters have been suspended.
“Either the two suspended firemen have a Herculean capacity to process beer or all the firefighters who drank are guilty,” wrote Kazakoff.
The city and the mayor agreed with him and decided to hand out 2-week suspensions to every member who was at the fire. In a display of solidarity, members who weren’t there, including one who was out of town, offered to share the responsibility and offered to take the 2 weeks off too. Following the examples of fire departments elsewhere who punish their citizens with “rolling station closures,” the Oliver VFD will be handing out the suspensions on a rotating basis until every member has paid his penalty.
Since all the foam hit the fan, fire chief Dave Janzen has been on a medical leave of absence.
The 3-story wood-frame hotel was built in 1914 in
another city and later moved to Oliver.
Photo by David Rodgers
Read the story in the Western News HERE.
CHBC-TV News has this video report that also includes some fire footage:
d
Also on FireGeezer…
- Suspicious Fire Destroys Small Canadian Town’s Secondary School – September 14, 2011
