West Vancouver fire crews call on Vancouver fireboats to tackle brush fire

West Vancouver fire crews were called to a “moderately” sized brush fire in the Eagle Harbour area on Friday afternoon.

The 30 by 40 foot blaze broke out in a rocky area in the 5500-block of Parthenon Place.

Assistant fire Chief Jeff Bush said crews had contained fire by around 2:30 p.m., but had trouble putting it out because it was in a hard to access area near the water.

To finish the job, he said they called in a pair of fireboats from Vancouver.

“We called them in because there’s such a sheer cliff on the very, very west side of the park where that fire was, our crews could not get to that area because of the terrain,” Bush said.

“Our crews would have had to rope down, putting our crews in harm’s way, where it’s unnecessary. We have a fire boat at our disposal, and we did use it. And it proved to work very well.”

West Vancouver resident Stephanie La Porta said a number of residents in the area called 911, and that crews had managed to contain the flames within half an hour.

Bush said nine firefighters and two engines were called to the site, and established a perimeter to keep it from spreading.

Bush added that gusty winds created challenges for firefighters.

Crews were able to extinguish the flames by about 3:30 p.m.

Bush said it’s too soon to say how the fire might have started.