Vancouver Fire Rescue Services are asking people to do their due diligence before making social media posts, after they say a local business’s reputation was damaged.
VFRS Public Information Officer Jonathan Gormick said the problem started when crews responded to a fire at a business on Triumph Street on Jan. 14.
A tweet posted on Jan. 14 by Vancouver Fire Chief Darrell Reid said small explosions at the site attracted the attention of onlookers.
Gormick said people heard there were scraps and materials on the property, causing access issues for crews — and assumed it was a scrapyard.
That led them to believe the fire happened at a local family-owned business called Capital Salvage, which wasn’t the case.
“It was just early information. Because it was a numbered business that didn’t look like any sort of any formal order, it just had a bunch of material lying around in the yard and people said scrapyard,” said Gormick.
“And unfortunately when you Google ‘Triumph and scrapyard’, Capital Salvage came up and that wasn’t the case.”
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Gormick said access issues at the site caused people to malign Capital Salvage on social media — in spite of that business having nothing to do with the fire.
“The property we were attending to was in a state of disarray. So I think people automatically assumed that Capital Salvage was not an orderly business, that it was in some state of disarray,” Gormick said.
“And there were some challenges encountered including cylinders of compressed gas and I think some access issues so those all got lumped onto Capital Salvage which was incorrect.”
Gormick said the business works to keep recyclable material out of landfills.
And he wants people to be aware that social media is a powerful tool — and when you post something, you should do your best to make sure it’s correct.
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