Members of Uchucklesaht Tribe risked their lives fighting a raging house fire that threatened to destroy the remote village of Elhlateese on the evening of Dec. 18.
The tiny community, with just 14 homes, is located at the head of Uchucklesaht Inlet. According to Scott Coulson, chief operating officer for the Uchucklesaht Tribe Government, the owner of the home, Rob Cootes, was staying in Port Alberni at the time the blaze broke out.
Warren Robinson, the skipper of the water taxi Low Rider, lives in a mobile home immediately adjacent to the Cootes property, with his two children.
“The kids attend school in Port Alberni, and they had come home on the water taxi with their dad,” Coulson said. “That night, Warren’s daughter got up and looked out the window and screamed that there were flames coming out of Rob’s window.”
Coulson said with the Cootes home already spewing flames from most of the blown-out windows, the immediate concern was the two 100-pound propane tanks, facing each other on the side of both houses. The village is equipped with fire hydrants and hoses.
“When Warren scrambled out, Martin Sam, our maintenance guy, was already putting out hose,” Coulson said. “We have a water tower high up in the hills, so we get good pressure. But when the water hit the fire, it knocked out the power in the village, so they only had the water that was in the tower.”
The responders managed to wrestle the propane tanks to safety.
By sheer good fortune, there was a contractor staying in the village to perform an upgrade on the electrical system. With no backup generator in place to power the water pump, Sam and Robinson and the other members who arrived at the scene were in danger of running out of water. Coulson said the contractor managed to contact BC Hydro and secure permission to rig up a bypass to get the water flowing in time.
“If he hadn’t been there, they would have run out of water. It would have taken hours to get a BC Hydro crew in, and we could have lost a lot more homes,” he said.
Coulson said by coincidence he had recently been in discussions with the Port Alberni Fire Department to provide firefighter training for Uchucklesaht members. The villagers have some rudimentary firefighting gear like helmets and gloves, but none of the fireproof clothing required for entering a burning building.
“There was a fear that Rob was in the building. One member was about to enter, then it came over the [VHF] radio that he was in town,” Coulson said, adding that the would-be rescuer could have been seriously injured and a long way from medical help.
Another factor that likely prevented the fire from spreading further was the heavy rainfall. Nearby Henderson Lake, and by extension Elhlateese, is recognized as the rainiest location in continental North America, averaging over 2,500 centimetres per year, and on the evening of the fire, it was coming down in buckets.
“It was just pouring, but the fire was so intense they had to keep putting water on it for hours just to keep it under control,” Coulson said. “If this had happened in the summer, we could have lost the whole village.”
The home, which had been passed down from the mother of Uchucklesaht elected Chief Councillor Charlie Cootes Sr., was a complete loss.
“Rob is obviously very distraught – he lost everything,” Coulson said, adding that along with personal and family items and artifacts, there was also a historic family canoe destroyed in the blaze.
“The band helped out as much as we could to provide assistance over Christmas,” Coulson said. “We are now working with Victim Services to get him set up.”
Coulson said the tribe is embarking on long-term infrastructure projects that should improve safety in the village.
“We’re currently tendering for a new water system in the next three months that will have a backup generator,” he said.
Related: http://www.hashilthsa.com/gallery/powering-uchucklesaht-tribe-celebrates-new-power-generating-system
