THE HISTORY OF THE BURNABY FIRE DEPARTMENT
We invite you to visit this page to follow a chronological order of how our Fire Department has developed over the past 100 years. Once a month, we will feature a story of an event or call that the Burnaby Fire Department attended. You will be able to see how the Burnaby Fire Department, at the turn of the century, went from a smaller community where firefighting was a neighbourhood responsibility to the present structure of the Fire Department today. This page will feature excerpts and photos from the book, "Follow That Fire", which was published by Doug Penn, a Burnaby Firefighter.
"Follow that Fire" can be purchased from the cashier (1st Floor) at Burnaby City Hall for $35.00 including tax or you may click back to our home page and contact us directly (see Home Page and click on Contact Us)
At the turn of the century, brush fires were set to clear land. On occasion, these fires would become uncontrollable which resulted in homes and barns being burned to the ground. Neighbours would band together to extinguish these fires. Men from the British Columbia Railway Company, along with the Gilley Brothers (loggers in the area) routinely brought some of the fires under control using the Gilley's small fire truck. At that time, a volunteer fire brigade had not been organized and there wasn't a water system in place to extinguish the fires.
In 1911, the Municipality purchased 48 fire hydrants at a price of $45 each and began to develop a water system to supply the hydrants. By 1912 it was reported that 97.8 miles of supply and distribution mains had been laid throughout the community. A $350,000 bylaw was brought down to construct a pipeline from Seymour Creek on the north shore to a pump station at Carleton and Eton. This pump house would later become the location for the North Burnaby Fire Department.
Citizens lobbied the Municipality to organize volunteer fire brigades, but the Municipality was more focused on developing a road system than providing fire protection. Burnaby relied on other municipalities to provide fire protection. New Westminster Fire Department responded to the Edmonds area, the South Vancouver Fire Department responded to the Central Park area and the Vancouver Fire Department covered North Burnaby, including the Barnet area. When these departments responded, Burnaby paid $25 to the Fireman's Benevolent Fund.
It was reported in 1918 that Vancouver and surrounding municipalities, including Burnaby, had suffered the worst per capita fire loss in the civilized world and the per capita loss was five times higher than the rest of Canada. Even with these facts, it would be several more years before Burnaby would consider organizing a fire brigade.
