After a loud and colourful 15-minute show, the Canada Day fireworks display in Steveston went sideways – quite literally.
Instead of shooting skyward, a few in the last volley of brilliant blasts, which are set off from a barge on the shores of Shady Island, went leaping eastward down the river.
This concluded the show, and the crowd lining the Steveson boardwalk to watch the display began to disperse when a relatively small brush fire started downwind from the barge in the direction the fireworks had landed. The crowd re-gathered to watch emergency boats make their way to the blaze. One boat was hosing the fire but appeared to have a hard time getting close enough.
The high wind may have also hampered fire suppression efforts, while fueling the fire.
It’s unclear why a few of the fireworks went astray, but clearly organizers were having challenges from the outset. Although the show itself seemed to run smoothly, it had started about 15 minutes late “due to technical difficulties,” explained an announcer. City of Richmond spokesperson Ted Townsend told the News by email that the show was delayed because some boats had to be moved to a safe distance from the fireworks and that there was a technical glitch in between the computer used to initiate the fireworks and it's signal to the barge.
We’ve used the same contractor and system for many years at both our Canada Day fireworks and Halloween fireworks and this is first time this has occurred," Townsend said.
Townsend added that the fire "was caused by a fireworks shell that drifted off of course due to the wind." Four people were on Shady Island with fire extinguishers, but the fire occurred in a fenced area which they were unable to access. Instead, the Steveston Harbour Authority responded to the fire.
"We got as close to the shore as we could, however we could not reach the fire with the stationary fire nozzles," Jaime Da Costa, general manager of the Steveston Harbour Authority told the Richmond News by email. "We had to deploy 250 feet of fire hose and wade through the marsh on the island to extinguish the fire which was spreading because of the wind.
"Once we were able to access the fire, it was extinguished in 20 minutes."
