Fire department vehicles from around the region converged on B.C.’s Lake Country on Sunday to pay respect to one of their own.
They were part of a procession of emergency vehicles that escorted the family of Lake Country firefighter Karl Featherstone to a celebration of life on Sunday, the district said on social media.
The 47-year-old father of two died in October after experiencing “a cardiac medical emergency at home,” according to the district.
The district’s deputy fire chief said the Lake Country Fire Department is treating Featherstone’s passing as a line-of-duty death related to his work as a firefighter, but that an official determination on whether his death was work-related will be made by WorksafeBC.
Penner said the day before Featherstone was found unresponsive he responded to four calls, including two medical calls.
“He was well respected, well-liked and loved by the entire hall … he’s going to be missed by everybody.”
In a statement, Lake Country fire chief Steve Windsor called Featherstone’s death “a tragic loss.”
“He was a hard-working and well-respected man. We extend our deepest condolences to his family – especially his wife and two young children, friends and members of the LCFD as we mourn his loss,” Windsor said.
Among his many calls in his 11 years as a paid-on-call firefighter with the Lake Country Fire Department, he responded to the Christie Mountain Wildfire in the South Okanagan earlier in the year, the district said.