Late last week, as I was walking to the Skytrain from my home in Southeast False Creek I noticed a plume of smoke coming from the pilings near Science World...
Moments later, I noticed that the Aquabus was pulling something interesting: two dinghys that the fire department had commandeered/borrowed from people who had parked them at the nearby City-owned pier!
Once they got to the edge of Science World the firefighters were passed their axes, oxygen tanks and some fire extinguishers and proceeded to row under the pilings and (I assume) put out the fire. I say I "assume" because I called around inquiring about the fire and was kindly told I needed to do a Freedom Of Information request to learn anything about it, which would take weeks for me to hear back about. So since Science World is still standing I'm going to assume they put it out after I left the scene.
I don't have the facts on why they didn't bring in one of those big fire boats to put out the blaze (if there even was one) so again I'm going to have to share an assumption and say that this is pure ingenuity on the part of the fire department; as you can see the tide was fairly high and the only way to get under there and take care of a fire would be in a tiny boat, which I don't think they own or would have readily available in case of an emergency. Some clever fireman saw those dinghys parked, saw the Aquabus approaching and sprung into action, perhaps saving Science World.
Stay tuned for my next piece featuring the Vancouver Police Department commandeering some shriners' vehicles during the Santa Claus Parade and getting towed to a call by the Juice Truck! ;)
