The Squamidian Report – July 22 / 17
Issue #791
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
As some of you may know, I played up at the gondola last Saturday
evening. On normal Saturday afternoons and evenings there are weddings
happening up there but for some reason 2 Saturdays during the 'wedding
season' remained un-booked. Thats where I come in, rather than have
nothing happening I was given those dates and last Sat was one of them.
I had been a bit concerned because they were having a very busy day and
the temperature was well above the comfort level. Down right hot in
fact. So, I got there with lots of time to spare and managed to find a
parking spot in the very full parking lot. I loaded my sound system
onto my handy dandy little dolly and headed for the lift lineup. In
chatting with some of the employees that know me I was informed it was
going to be very hot and crowded at the top but I was committed and so
up I went. It was crowded at the top but the 'hot' part was quickly
abating and a breeze was starting to pick up. By the time one of the
outside workers had set up the shade cover the breeze had become a
howling wind that threatened to blow everything is sight away. The
almost gail force wind continued for most of the evening and turned
cold, very, very cold. By the time I was half way through my first set
I could no longer feel my fingers.
As the wind grew colder, more and more people elected to leave and go
home or where ever they could go to get warm. It was so cold you'd have
thought it was still winter. I had people come up to me and tell me
that they'd like to stay longer and listen to the music but it was just
too cold to stay. Of course not everyone fled the cold, the more hardy
ones sat around and enjoyed the evening. From a musical point of view
it was fine although I did avoid many of the more intricate guitar
parts and those that required a bit extra finesse or dexterity as my
fingers couldn't be counted on to perform at their usual, amazing
level. One possible option that had occurred to me as I attempted to
keep from freezing was to borrow a nice warm expensive jacket or vest
from the retail outlet that is in the lodge and that would have worked
out just fine if the person manning the sales desk knew me as most of
them do. However, they have numerous new summer employees that have not
yet had the pleasure of getting to know me and the one on duty was one
of those poor, disadvantaged individuals. The ones that know me would
have gladly loaned me something warm, knowing I'd return it at the end
of the evening. The ones that don't couldn't be faulted for not handing
some stranger a garment so the next best thing was to get a coffee and
wrap my hands around it in an attempt to restore some feeling and
circulation. But like I said, those that could handle the cold
enjoyed the music and I enjoyed playing it. Funny thing, once it was
over and I'd packed up my system and headed down, I discovered that
down at sea level it was nice and warm, no indication at all of the icy
winds a kilometer up the mountain. Oh well. Next time will probably be
way too hot. That will be this coming Sunday, we shall see.
Regarding the forest fires causing such destruction in the BC Interior:
so far and luckily, the coastal areas have been mostly spared. Even
though its pretty dry around the coast, its still 'green'. Most of the
time there is a stiff wind blowing in off the ocean that has kept us
bathed in marine air. However, that changed for a few days this week.
One Monday morning our air was clear and clean but the winds had died
and we could see a wall of smoke flowing over the Mamquam mountains and
ice-field area north east of us. A short time later the same wall of
smoke reached Mt Garibaldi and was pouring over the peak, flowing down
the west side and toward the valley. The valley air was still calm and
therefore the two air massed didn't mix together for a few more hours.
The smoke and the air mass it was in sat overtop the valley air like
soap suds in a bath tub. It looked quite ominous. By late afternoon the
mixing began and by evening we were choking, with stinging eyes and
raspy throats. Most of Tuesday was not at all pleasant but by late
Tuesday an on-shore air flow had set up again and by Tuesday night the
smoke had pretty well cleared out. Wednesday was nice and clear and
wonderful again. We had had a short taste of what most of the province
has been living with for the last several weeks.
We've had summers here that were very smoky and so we have been lucky
so far but this summer is less than half over so we are not out of the
woods yet. Many of the fires were and are being caused by natural
processes like lightning etc but way too many are and are still being
caused by humans. I use the term 'human' quite loosely as there seems
to be way too many people that do not seem to demonstrate the qualities
necessary to qualify them as fully 'human'. Such is the state of the
world.
doug
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THE ONTARION REPORT
Hello everyone!
Not so sure I’d like to live anywhere in the province of BC right now!
With all the forest fires that are tearing that province apart at the
moment it’s hard to believe they’ll stop them before the entire
province is nothing but an ash pit! It’s a shame to see all that beauty
being devastated with so little that can be done to stop it! I sure
hope Mother Nature turns on the showers soon before things get any
worse, if that’s possible. Looks like the only way of stopping these
fires is with her help! Let’s keep our fingers crossed and BC in our
nightly prayers that this dry spell ends soon on the west coast.
Speaking of fires, Wellington County right here in Southern Ontario is
having their share of problems right now with some foolhardy fire bug
lighting abandoned rural buildings on fire on a regular basis. They
don’t seem to be able to get a handle on this guy or group of people
and until someone actually sees the bug in action I’m afraid they’ll
just have to keep on chasing the smoke! Back in the late 70’s we had an
arsonist in Waterloo who tagged his fires with the name Hephaestus that
is the Greek name of the God of Fire. The regional police and Waterloo,
Kitchener and Guelph fire departments were all doing their best to hunt
this guy down before he killed someone. WFD had the majority of the
fires in Waterloo but he also lit a couple in Kitchener and a few in
Guelph. I think we had around fifteen of his fires over a 6-month span.
He had a habit of lighting fires in mostly three-story walk up
apartment buildings. His favourite spot was usually in the basement
storage locker room. He couldn’t have picked a better spot to light one
if he wanted to inflict the most damage and endanger the most lives.
Fortunately he didn’t succeed in torching any complete buildings. The
worst fire we had in Waterloo was lit in the Civitan Senior’s
Apartments on Erb St E and the corner of Devitt St. It’s was a warm
summer evening around 11pm when the call came in to HQ and we had all
been waiting up as it was a Saturday evening and that’s when he usually
struck. The papers dubbed him “The Saturday Night Arsonist”. We
responded with both stations and every available truck, knowing that
we’d have a lot of senior people to evacuate from the building.
From the entrance on Devitt St the building looked like one story in
height. However, it was actually built on a hill where Erb St sloped
from Devitt St, down hill to the west, which exposed that side of the
building to be a three-story structure. We had discovered that the fire
had been lit in the residents lounge on the main or top floor. That
made sense since he would have most easily gained access from Devitt St
main entrance. We had to evacuate the entire occupation of the building
and since many of the residents lived on the upper floor they were cut
off from leaving via the front entrance. The lounge was approximately
half way along the building and anybody living closer to the rear of
the building found the hallway filled with black acrid smoke. We had
several ladders set up outside so we could assist the elderly folks
through their apartment windows to safety.
What a mess that place was when we arrived. The entire building was
filled with smoke and there were several people passed out in the upper
hallway due to the smoke they encountered on their way to the front
door. We had to drag and carry about a dozen seniors out onto the front
lawn of the building and begin resuscitation. Luckily we were able to
have three ambulance crews attend the scene that evening and they were
running steadily from the scene to KW Hospital at the time. Luckily we
managed to revive all of the folks we removed from the hallways and
nobody suffered any lasting effects or injuries from the fire. The
first crew on scene was doing mostly rescue work upon arrival and the
second in pumper from Station 2 set up and was tasked with fighting the
fire. The majority of the damage from fire was contained to the lounge
room but the rest of the building sustained heavy smoke damage. When
the fire was extinguished the Ontario Fire Marshal was called in to
assist our Fire Prevention Inspectors with the investigation. They
spent the next two or three days going over the scene and the evidence
they had found within. Of course the Regional Police Arson Squad was
also in the thick of this investigation. They discovered that it was
the work of Hephaestus and also that he had set a booby trap of a
container of gasoline under one of the couches in the lounge. He had
figured that while we were fighting the fire, we’d move the couch and
spill the can of gas, catching the firefighters in the middle of a
conflagration. Luckily we had been aware of his tactics from previous
situations and knew enough not to disturb any of the main furnishings
in the room. We were warned to extinguish the fire as quickly as
possible by using wide-angle fog streams. This type of stream is like a
big ball of fuzz and exerts little pressure on anything it comes in
contact with. Thus, any contact with his booby trap would be less
likely to disturb it or spill the contents. Needless to say, this was
one of the most dangerous and complicated fires set by this guy and
shortly afterward it all came to an end.
Hephaestus had switched from Waterloo because things were getting to
“hot” for him, so to speak, to lighting fires in Guelph. He had lit two
similar fires in apartments in Guelph and their police force had been
given information about a possible suspect and had set up surveillance
on this person. The detectives had decided to keep and eye on their
suspect and were watching his apartment one evening shortly after the
second fire in Guelph. They watched his apartment building and observed
him entering a taxi. They followed the taxi to the local Grey Coach bus
terminal where the suspect boarded a bus to Hamilton. They decided to
follow the bus and see where he’d get off. He rode the bus right into
downtown Hamilton and when he got off the bus he walked about a dozen
blocks toward a residential apartment section of town. He stopped into
a gas station and purchased a plastic gas container and filled it with
gas. They followed him to a nearby apartment building. They watched as
he entered the entrance at one end of the building and could see that
he went down into the lower level. He was inside for about five minutes
and suddenly came running out of the same entrance. As he exited the
building, the smoke from the fire he had lit followed him out into the
parking lot. The detectives had alerted the Hamilton Fire Dept and
immediately arrested Hephaestus on the spot! The Fire dept arrived
within a few minutes and extinguished the fire before it got out of
hand.
After having spent months of sleepless nights waiting for another arson
fire to happen in Waterloo and the other surrounding cities we were
indeed relieved to hear the good news passed on to us by the Guelph
Police! The fact that this arsonist had endangered so many innocent
lives and inflicted so much property damage was a big factor in the
judges sentencing decision when this arsonist finally got his day in
court. He was deemed a “Dangerous Offender” and was sentenced to
incarceration in the mental hospital in Penetanguishene. Which meant
that he would spend the rest of his life behind bars. Only would he be
allowed out if it were ever proven that his mental state was back to
normal and he was no longer a danger to society! Fat chance!
This person or persons in Welling County lighting fires over the past
six months will most likely face the same fate if and when they are
ever caught. Let’s hope he’s stopped before he progresses to occupied
buildings and kills someone! One of the most difficult persons to catch
in the act is an arsonist. There are so many different ways to ignite a
fire and it’s almost never as obvious as the method used by Hephaestus
in Hamilton.
Thank goodness the Guelph Police were smarter than he was!
That’s about it for this week folks!
Thanks for tuning in and I’ll look forward to talking to you all again next week in The Ontarion Report.
Bye for now … Greg
PS: Something to Think About>
Let’s hope the residents of Wellington County are alert enough to spot
the arsonist before he strikes again. He lit four fires within five
hours on Thursday July 20, 2017.
Wellington County keep you’re eyes open!
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Have a good one..
the doug
The Fine Print!
The articles in these issues are the sole property of the persons writing them and should be respected as such.
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