The Insurance Corporation of B.C. (ICBC) is suing the City of Burnaby, claiming its firefighters failed to properly contain a fire that saw six trucks go up in flames in January.
Fire crews were called to 7850 Venture St. by Lake City Way just before 9 p.m. on Jan. 2 for their first major fire of the year, assistant fire Chief Bryan Kirk told the NOW the morning after the blaze.
Kirk said they had arrived to find a number of trucks on fire and that the fire had proven tricky on the freezing cold night, melting hydro lines and spreading via spilled diesel from one truck to other vehicles.
Kirk estimated the blaze had caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to the trucks and their contents, including bananas and other produce.
ICBC now claims the firefighters who attended the fire, which started in a Freightliner van, were negligent for failing to take the necessary steps to contain the damage.
“The defendant’s firefighters who attended the scene of the loss did not use a foam disbursement (sic) system and did not set up containment measures, or have firefighter personnel monitor their activity, and subsequently diesel fuel from the Freightliner van spread from one vehicle to another, each catching on fire,” states a notice of civil claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court June 29.
ICBC is looking for the city to pay the as-yet undetermined sum the insurance company will have to pay out to JMP Trucking Ltd., the owner of six trucks destroyed or damaged in the fire.
The allegations have not been proven in court, and the city had not filed a response by press time.
