It’s a different kind of police lineup than Coun. Chuck Puchmayr has ever seen before.
Puchmayr has spent “four intense days” running food, medicine, and firefighting equipment between Williams Lake and Tl'etinqox First Nation reserves and is scheduled to head home on Tuesday morning. Last week, he headed to the Central Interior to accompany a donated New Westminster fire truck to its new home on the Anaham reserve.
“It is a ghost town,” he told the Record Monday morning by phone from Williams Lake. “There is nobody here except police.”
While the police officers’ main role was to ensure residents abided by the evacuation order and to prevent looting from taking place, he said they were also volunteering at the local Tim Hortons.
“The manager and the owner are behind the counter and they are training on-duty police officers to serve food and coffee. There is a huge lineup, and the next thing you know police started working behind the counter. I said to the police, ‘The last time I was in a police lineup, it wasn’t like this,’” quipped Puchmayr. “There has to be about half a dozen of them working behind the counter. They are teaching them to use the machine, how to make coffee, how to serve, how to use the till. It’s hilarious. It’s a policeman’s dream isn’t it? Owning your own doughnut shop.”
There wasn’t a doughnut in sight when Puchmayr enjoyed breakfast made by the Tl'etinqox elders on the reserve.
“There were huge pots of coffee, there was moose sausage and beer sausage,” he said. “It was just an amazing breakfast.”
