New Westminster Fire Chief Tim Armstrong has seen a lot of changes to firefighting during his lengthy career.
During a recent interview regarding the Oct. 10 fire that destroyed two buildings on Columbia Street, Armstrong spoke of some of those changes.
“The culture of the fire service has changed dramatically,” he told The Record. “When I started it was almost you weren’t seen as rough and tough if you put a mask on. Masks were just starting to be introduced. You heard the stories about the old leather-lung firefighters and that. Those were the old guys that were war vets, got through the war, got on the fire service and went and fought fires.”
Armstrong said many of the fires attended in those days were “Class A combustible wood fires” that didn’t have all the plastics and toxins found in today’s fires. Testing conducted at the site following the Oct. 10 fire noted a higher presence of asbestos than what’s deemed acceptable.åç
“That’s not a secret,” he said. “They were just above the permissible limits for WorkSafe B.C.”
Following the fire, several residents and community members at the scene expressed concern about the possibility of having been exposed to asbestos.
“From a public heath perspective, it’s not like it flies all over the place,” Armstrong said. “As much as it is a health risk if you are working in it on an ongoing basis and you are not taking proper precautions – to put it into perspective there are very low levels there but high enough that it needed to be treated as a contaminant.”
Although firefighters takes steps to minimize the risks of exposure to asbestos when responding to building fires, Armstrong noted that many of the products used in modern building construction and furnishings are toxic when burning, including glues, resins and formaldehyde.
“To be honest with you, if you are going to come to a fire scene – there is smoke in the air, there is plastics. There are far greater contaminants in the smoke particles that are generated from a fire scene, especially with today’s modern plastics, fibreglasses, furnishings and carpets,” he said. “The best advice would be to stay away.”
If people are living near a fire, Armstrong said they should keep their doors and windows closed and try to stay out of direct contact with smoke.
“People are curious, I get that,” he said. “People want to come out and see it. It can look fairly spectacular. People are drawn to fires.”
Many individuals and media flocked to downtown New Westminster on Oct. 10 to witness the fire that destroyed two of the area’s significant heritage buildings. Investigators may seek some of the images captured on camera and posted on social networking sites to help determine the cause of the fire.
With the advent of smart phones, Armstrong said another aspect has changed to firefighting since he started his career three decades ago.
“You were lucky if you had a reporter on scene taking a couple of pictures,” he said. “Now it comes in waves.”
