2 replies to this topic

[VicHockeyFan]

A young girl dragged from a burning View Royal home was in serious condition in a Vancouver hospital on Thursday night.

“We did everything we could to save that little girl,” said View Royal Fire Chief Paul Hurst.

....

A 911 call from within the house was cut off abruptly, but Saanich fire dispatchers were able to get enough information to send View Royal firefighters to the fire.

...

The girl’s grandmother, 58, was found unconscious on the front doorstep.
On hearing that the girl was last seen in her basement bedroom, the firefighters — blinded by black smoke and engulfed in 700° C heat — headed to the home’s lower floor, where they knocked down the fire and searched for her.

She was found on the main floor in the living room hallway, Hurst said.
West Shore RCMP Sgt. Max Fossum said the fire chief rushed into the inferno with no equipment and dragged the little girl out.

http://www.timescolo...l-blaze-1.91130

[LJ]

Is Colwood a union fire hall?

[Victoria Watcher]

Search-and-rescue officials have called off the formal search for a Courtenay man missing for more than a week due to a lack of new clues.

 

Michael Gazetas, 51, was reported missing by his wife on Jan. 31. Hundreds of people spent days scouring Vancouver Island from Victoria to Cape Scott, looking for Gazetas, before search-and-rescue teams joined in on Saturday.

 

https://www.timescol...week-1.24072226

 

not very good news here.

 

 

 

from gofundme:

 

After two days of official searching, the RCMP and local SAR teams will stand down the search for our friend Michael Gazetas.

More than 52 official Search and Rescue volunteers came from as far away as Victoria, SaltSpring Island and Powell River.

Teams covered 16, 000 square kilometres on Northern Vancouver Island over this past Saturday and Sunday.

Day 1

21 teams
19 road assignments
1 power boat with sonar and underwater camera searching lakes
1 kayak unit
2 fixed wing flights
1 private helicopter flight

Day 2

19 teams
18 road assignments
1 power boat with sonar and underwater camera searching lakes
2 fixed wing flights
1 SAR helicopter flight (3hrs)
1 private helicopter flight (6hrs)

70,000 Go Pro photos were taken from Heli Air flights.

This is on top of 8 days of friends searching every road possible all over Vancouver Island, scouring surveillance and traffic cameras, handing out flyers, talking to people, and spreading the word.

The feeling is that if Michael was alive, we would have found him. He is a resourceful guy who would have lit a signal fire, something.

This is obviously not the outcome we wanted and one that is hard to accept.

This is a group of loyal friends who have worked tirelessly in the last week. We are film people and I think we all feel that if we mobilize and work hard, we can produce results, but all avenues have been exhausted and we are exhausted. We’ve done everything we can and looked everywhere we can for now.

It’s a testament to Gaz that all of these people came out to search, to provide care, food, love, legal, financial, technical and communication support.

Brent Calkin, Holly Birch, Jay Pretula, Pete Roeck, Erik More, Lynne Stopkewich, Marc Gerrard, Elisabeth van Assum, Kieran Humphries, Rielle Capler, Andrew Bee, Bion Dolman, Ari Wise, Bruce Haden, Dina Holmes,Gregory Middleton, Scott Smith, Claire Smithies, Gregory Clarke, Joan Miller, Sue Biely, Holly Alyea, Kat Lanteigne, Ian Hinkle, Matt Sinclair, Alexander Maxwell Wood, everyone at the DGC, IATSE Local 89 and many more.

Thank you all, and to anyone I have missed.

Our hearts go out to Michael’s family, to Michelle Root and Calliope Gazetas, Sophie and Janine Root. We surround you with love.

And to Gaz wherever you are, we love you so much.

#Gazlove

So many of you have asked ‘how can I help?’. We finally have a task that needs many eyes at computers.
This evening about 50-70 thousand images from todays chopper flights are going to be uploaded to a password protected file and we’ll need people to start looking at them. There will be a little ‘how to’ document that will be shared with volunteers who take on this task.

Ideally we’ll work with folks who have at least 90 minutes of time to contribute at a minimum so that we will get through all these images in the next day. Many eyes will make for quick work.

If you are interested and available to help with this, please send the following information to Holly Alyea:

· Your name and connection to Michael Gazetas.
· Your email
· Your mobile
· The window of time you are available to help Monday Feb 10th.

Email brollyplustwo@gmail.com and Holly will coordinate files and volunteers.

Thank you.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 10 February 2020 - 06:33 AM.