The paramedic at the wheel when an ambulance plunged down a steep cliff into a Vancouver Island lake had recently become a grandmother. Her partner, in the passenger seat, had lost his wife to cancer last year and was preparing for retirement. The veteran paramedics were the best of friends.
Jo-ann Fuller, 59, and Ivan Polivka, 65, of Tofino died Tuesday when their ambulance jumped the Pacific Rim Highway’s 30 centimetre-high curb, careened down a steep 36-metre cliff, and came to rest in nine metres of water in Kennedy Lake.
"Ivan and Jo-Ann were best friends so, in a sense, I’m happy they were together because it would of been too hard otherwise," said Marie-Helene Harrisson, another Tofino-based paramedic, Wednesday.
Both were wonderful people who taught her everything she knew, Harrisson said.
"Ivan had the best sense of humour," Harrisson said. He never missed a chance to pick up Timbits at Tim Horton’s for the nurse back at the hospital. "And Jo-Ann was so kind and wonderful – like a mother to a lot of people," Harrisson said.
Fuller was a 23-year veteran of the B.C. Ambulance Service and unit chief at Tofino Station 136. She was working as a PCP-IV (primary care paramedic, intravenous endorsement).
She was married to Brian Fuller, a local school district official, with whom she had three grown daughters – Jami and twins Lindsey and Angela – and a grandson, James.
"They are beautiful girls and she was so proud of them," said Kathryn Pearce Sywake, a paramedic now based in Sooke, but who worked closely with both Fuller and Polivak in Tofino.
Pearce Sywake credited Fuller for mentoring her in the job. "She raised an amazing family and everybody that knew her was instantly taken by her warmth and compassion and passion for the job and community," said Pearce Sywake.
The Fuller family gathered in Tofino Wednesday. They declined to comment.
Polivka had 14 years service with the ambulance service and was also working as a PCP-IV.
He was in the process of selling his house, with dreams of retiring and spending his days fishing at his cabin.
"He’s probably there right now," Harrisson said.
Polivka’s grown stepson is expected to arrive in Tofino from the Czech Republic Saturday.
Pearce Sywake worked with Polivka for more than three years. She described him as a very quiet but "remarkable" man.
He spoke about five languages, built his own house and was a pilot. "He was this genius. He had a lot of knowledge but he wasn’t a know-it-all," Pearce Sywake said.
"He was just an easy-going happy guy who was always there to help."
Premier Gordon Campbell issued condolences Wednesday to the families, friends and colleagues of paramedics Fuller and Polivka.
The first responders would be remembered for choosing to spend their lives helping others, Campbell said.
"Our province mourns the loss of these two dedicated paramedics, and we offer our sympathy to their loved ones, their colleagues and their friends at this difficult time," the premier said in a written statement.
The paramedics were driving back to their base in Tofino from Port Alberni after dropping a patient at West Coast General Hospital when the crash happened. They had left the hospital at about 4:20 a.m., and when they failed to arrive back in Tofino by 7:30 a.m., a search began.
A maintenance worker spotted the path of a vehicle that had veered off a winding stretch of High way 4, cut into the cliff above Kennedy Lake, and landed in the water.
There, about 15 kilometres east of the highway junction for Tofino and Ucluelet, police found the ambulance submerged.
An RCMP Island District dive team recovered the deceased inside the ambulance at 3:40 p.m, according to the B.C. Ambulance Service.
"On behalf of the ambulance service, I would like to extend our deepest condolences and sympathy to the families, friends and colleagues of Jo-Ann and Ivan," said BCAS chief operating officer Les Fisher Wednesday.
Both the mayors of Tofino and Ucluelet knew the paramedics.
Ucluelet Mayor Eric Russcher said the two avid volunteers could always be found at community events. "[The loss] deeply effects both communities," Russcher said.
The B.C. Coroners Service is leading the investigation into the deaths. The RCMP and Worksafe B.C. are also investigating.
William (B.J.) Chute, of Ambulance Paramedics of B.C., was in Tofino Wednesday as several organizations began the work of unravelling why and how the crash occurred on a stretch of highway both paramedics knew so well.
Pearce Sywake said she was shocked by the accident because both knew the unforgiving highway – narrow and twisting – well.
"They were my extended family and my friends, and I love them both. I’m broken-hearted," Pearce Sywake said. "I cannot imagine what [everyone] is going through right now because they were both huge in that community."
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