“Phoenix” has arisen out of the ashes from the wildfire which destroyed much of Lytton, BC and the nearby Siska First Nation in summer 2021. Phoenix is the name of a new fire fighting trailer now ready for this year’s fire season in BC. It will enable firefighters to respond more quickly to smaller fires before they explode into bigger ones and reach hard to access areas before heavier equipment can reach the site. -- dedication event photos by Kendal Blacker
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| The need for smaller, more rapid response fire fighting equipment came from Siska First Nation after the wildfire of 2021 which destroyed some its community and most of nearby Lytton, BC | |
The trailer is the first of its kind in Canada. It came at the request of former Fire Chief Lytton Fire Department Jason Phillips to Past Rotary District 5040 Governor Bob Blacker and the Rotary Club of Steveston. That was in the summer of 2023. He said he needed equipment that could easily navigate and reach difficult areas to handle spot fires and possible a trailer, with water supply and fire pump, that could be hauled around by a pickup truck or air lifted by helicopter. Rotary Club of Steveston and Rotary-sponsored Disaster Aid Canada held a dedication ceremony on March 27, 2025 for the first fire trailer to go into service in the Steveston community of Richmond, BC. Global TV featured the ceremony on its "This is BC" news hour feature on April 8, 2025.
Unable to find anything to meet that need in Canada, Bob said he contacted his brother, Warwick, in Australia. a Senior Deputy Captain of the St Albans Bush Fire Brigade in a small community two hours north of Sydney.
He says, “That community had produced fire trailers and stationed them in strategic locations surrounding the St. Albans community so that community members who observed a fire could access the trailer and potentially extinguish the fire, thereby saving valuable time before the arrival of the Fire Truck.”
Using this model, Bob and his Rotary Club of Steveston colleagues provided the funds, along with a grant of $350,000 from Disaster Aid Canada*, based in Ladysmith, BC, to develop this first fire trailer and plan to provide eight more for First Nation communities throughout the province. The Steveston club retained SGM Custom Design and Fabrication right in Richmond's Steveston community. to build the prototype for the trailer, with support of Rotarian Bill McEwen, a career engineer,
The communities the project will work with are: Skuppah First Nation, Kanaka Bar First Nation, Lytton First Nation, Botanie – unincorporated regional district area, Tsideldel First Nation, Yunesit’in First Nation, Tles’qox First Nation, and Xeni Gwet’in First Nation.
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| The fire trailer dedication ribbon-cutting ceremony included leaders of Rotary Club of Steveston, Siska First Nation and Disaster Aid Canada. A powerful jet of water pumped from the trailer can reach trees as well as burning brush and houses and smaller buildings | |
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| Jason Phillips (left), of the Siska community, who will help train volunteers to use the fire trailers in communities when they recieve theirs, with Bob Blacker, of Rotary Club of Steveston, leader of the project, speaking at the ceremony. Steveston Rotarian Bill McEwen (right) applied his career experience as an engineer in working with the manufacturer to produce the fire trailer. | |
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| The fire trailer demonstration shows a green intake tube which the motor draws water from a nearby water supply into the two 1,000 L tanks and a grey firefighting hose to which the motor pumps water from the tanks. For smaller fires, the blue hose on a reel at the back of the trailer is available. On right, two representatives of SGM Custom Design and Fabrication in Steveston who led the manufacturing of the trailer. The company will produce another eight trailers for First Nation communities in BC. | |
The fire trailer emerged as a solution from the Rotary Fire Rescue team and its collaboration with Siska Nation since 2021.
“Whenever Jason reached out to us,” Bob says, “we always endeavored to find solutions together. During the pandemic, we supplied Lytton Volunteer Firefighters under Jason's command with full PPE and SCBA sets, including replenishing equipment. In response to the 2021 Lytton and area fire, Rotary Club of Steveston and many other Rotary clubs in BC, provided disaster relief funding and then some protective equipment for firefighters.”
Siska First Nation is only one of nine in BC which have been earmarked for a fire trailer.
“When I and Shirley-Pat Gale, a fellow Rotary Past District 5040 Governor and Steveston Rotary member, have worked over the years with various First Nation communities through Rotary’s Write2Read** project we realized that many remote communities do not have any fire protection and could benefit from a fire trailer.”
The Fire Trailer The goal is to provide a simple, rugged, effective firefighting apparatus at an affordable cost. It is designed for operation by community members with basic training, and a suitable vehicle to tow it. This micro-firefighting apparatus can respond to small, localized fires near the community - before they grow into large-scale wildfires. It can go to remote spaces and places fire trucks cannot. It can also be used to fight fires within the community that threaten residents, along with their housing, community buildings and infrastructure. It includes: - a heavy-duty frame and running gear to handle rough roads, and even off-road conditions - 2.000 l of water storage, with a high-capacity pump - fire hoses and piping, including an alternate intake hose for filling from creeks, ponds, etc. - storage for hoses and fire-fighting equipment - a small generator and a lighting system - Anchor Points that will enable the trailer to be lifted by Helicopter when required for hard to access locations |
*Disaster Aid Canada (DCA) provides worldwide aid to people displaced by disasters. Founded in 2010 and administered by Rotary members in Canada, DCA, based at Rotary Club of Ladysmith. BC, works in partnership with Disaster Aid International, Regional Disaster Aid organizations, and Rotary Clubs around the world. It assists in delivering humanitarian aid, shelter, sustainable water systems, and other support to people affected by natural and other disasters. DCA partners with Rotary Clubs in the immediate area to determine local needs.
**Write2Read is a volunteer project inspired by former B.C. Lieutenant-Governor Hon. Steven Point, a one-time chief of the Sto:lo nation. Bob and Shirley-Pat have travelled to more than 30 First Nation communities, organizing the logistics for each library project. He’s recruited librarians, architects, engineers and a host of others to work with First Nations people. Without relying on government money, more than 50 volunteers with the Write to Read Project (W2R) have used trucks, boats and airplanes to distribute modular libraries and learning centres, computers and more than 70,000 books to nearly 30 communities.