By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
Osoyoos Fire Chief Corey Kortmeyer has praised the efforts of his firefighters, those of Oliver and Anarchist Mountain along with Osoyoos town staff for what he considers a “great save” in containing the major structure fire on Main Street that severely damaged a local business.
The cause of the March 1 fire at Loco Amigos has not yet been determined as the Osoyoos Fire Rescue (OFR) is still investigating, however, the Times Chronicle understands people were working in the building around the time of the fire.
The fire was spotted shortly after noon on Friday in an unusual circumstance whereby both Kortmeyer and Deputy Fire Chief Rob Huttema were coincidently in the immediate area. Spotting the smoke they pulled into the alleyway and made the 911 call that sent their own firetrucks rolling.
“In my career, this is the first time that I’ve ever come across a fire, other than a wildland fire,” Kortmeyer mused.
The structure was “highly involved,” he said, noting the priority was to isolate the highway in order to gain control over the fire. “We spent the next few hours trying to gain control of the area of origin. Unfortunately, it spread to two adjacent buildings,” he notes.
The building to the east – known for Unity Clothing and Rudy’s Flooring – had very minimal damage while the one to the west which houses Hemz’ Old Skool Cafe sustained a “fair amount of damage due to our overall of the fire,” he said.
This includes not just smoke and water damage from fighting the fire but structural damage due to the fact it shares a wall with the building where the fire originated, which may have compromised structural supports.
Kortmeyer is nonetheless satisfied with the outcome, as no one was hurt and the fire was largely contained to the area of origin. That’s a clear tick in the “win” column.
Of key concern was the evacuation of anyone living or working in the adjacent buildings. “Early on in the fire efforts we made sure to evacuate any of those people that were occupying the residential suites or the commercial suites out of those spaces,” Kortmeyer said.
Extra precautions were also taken in case the fire shifted due to wind or other conditions as well as the potential for things like explosions occurring. “We wanted to be able to have as many people pushed away from the fire that we could,” he added.
Kortmeyer says that any wind over five km/h can challenge firefighting efforts and on this particular day there was a 14 km/h wind blowing from the south to the northeast. This could have easily contributed to the fire spreading to other buildings on Main St.
“It was something that was tricky,” he said adding that it also meant heavy smoke was also blown across Main St. to the businesses on the opposite side.
The fire’s dark black smoke is common he noted, because much of the contents of houses and businesses is now made up of plastics and “the byproducts of that combustion will generally push a darker black smoke.”
Kortmeyer said that when he first took over the role of Fire Chief he had been told by a previous chief that this particular section of Main St. “kept him awake at night” because of the age, and type of structures that sometimes shared common walls, all holding out the potential for catastrophic fire.
Indeed, concern over the potential spread from the building of origin led Kortemery early on to place mutual aid calls to both the Oliver Fire Department and Anarchist Mountain Fire Departments for a structural engine and crew.
“So their personnel helped us which was great because we were able to make a really good save, not only by ustisling our resources but with the resources from our neighbouring communities.”
The vast majority of the firefighting took place from outside the actual structure due to the intensity of the fire, and smoke and more importantly the structural safety of the building. Kortmeyer explains: “The more that a fire burns, the more mass it takes out of the structural components.
“The incident commander, incident safety officers and those that are working in around will give updates, and once those structural members begin to fail, then what we ended up having to do is rather than place firefighters in harm’s way, it becomes exterior water application.”
This in itself has challenges because the fire department doesn’t have an aerial device. “It can cause some challenges,” he says noting that it means it takes a little bit longer to gain control over the fire.
“We really wanted to be cognizant of keeping the fire to the area of origin, and that’s what we were focusing on. We were really working hard to make sure that the fire didn’t move to the east or the west.”
Because of Osoyoos’ ongoing water issues, “water supply is always an issue on the back of my mind,” Kortmeyer acknowledged, particularly in cases like this where large volumes of water are used over extended periods.
He praised the active involvement of Osoyoos’ Operational Services staff in monitoring the water supply to ensure the firefighters had what they needed. Bylaw officers helped direct diverted traffic and keep people back from the scene and town staff even went the extra mile to get food and water for the firefighters.
“Not only that, but their teams got together and they were helping us shuttle our breathing apparatus bottles back and forth to town hall so we could get them filled to allow us to have continued operations,” he added.
“If any one of those cogs or pieces did not happen or we were not pushed forward by the great working people that we have here I truly know that it would have been a lot worse than it turned out,” Kortmeyer said.
“It’s in these moments where you know, the community worked together and other communities worked together with us for what I would call a great save.”
But Kortmeyer added that “the really unfortunate part about it, though, is that in these in these situations, there are those that end up losing a fair amount. And that has some very personal challenges for those that are affected by fire.”
He expressed an appreciation for how the community has responded in a “positive fashion,” knowing the hardship the business owner has experienced as well as “what my team put themselves through physically”.
“It’s something that a lot of people should be cognizant of when we’re being called to do these things. These are dangerous acts that we’re trying to undertake, and given the smoke and fire conditions it wasn’t an easy fire to fight with the prolonged activity physically tough on firefighters.”
Kortmeyer held out praise for all the firefighters on the scene saying there are now three incidents in which he is very proud of the firefighters, including the Nk’mip Creek wildfire of 2022, the Eagle Bluff wildfire of last year and this particular fire on Main St. “Our crews did an amazing job,” he added.
