9 October 2008
CP Rail Guys Come to Rescue
Kamloops British Columbia - A trio of CP Rail employees
are credited with saving a downtown apartment building threatened by a fire on a second-floor balcony.
"With that wind blowing today, it burned fast," Bill Balyx said Tuesday.
The Daily News reached Balyx by cellphone in Cache Creek hours after the blaze at 550 Lorne St. was extinguished.
He and co-worker Kevin Bishop were driving along Lorne on Tuesday morning when the first plume of smoke appeared.
At first the men believed the smoke was coming from a barbecue.
Then the balcony erupted in flames that quickly spread to the vinyl siding.
"It was moving pretty fast," said Balyx.
The men pulled over and grabbed a couple of fire extinguishers from their truck.
A third CP employee in another truck also happened to drive by.
He had a ladder.
Bishop raced up the ladder and fired the extinguishers into the flames while Balyx phone 911 on his cellphone.
He said firefighters were on scene in a matter of minutes.
"They got there fast."
Afterward, Bishop told Balyx he saw a burned wicker chair on the deck.
"It was so smokey at the time that we couldn't see anything," said Balyx.
Fire inspector Dan Funk said the men saved the building. Balyx said they were in the right place at the right time.
"We did what we could," he said.
Residents at 550 Lorne left the building when smoke filled the second-floor hallway. The building's fire alarm did not
sound.
Neighbours identified the apartment's occupant as Greg Gibb. Funk said Gibb was asleep when the fire started.
He said a cigarette butt left in an outside ashtray was picked up by the wind and dropped on the wicker chair.
Funk reminded residents this is Fire Prevention Week. He said Tuesday's blaze is a prime example of why people need to be careful with
cigarettes.
|
