Tag: Alta Lake Volunteer Fire Department

Having a BallHaving a Ball

August 12, 2025 Whistler Museum 0 Comments

When the Alta lake Volunteer Fire Department (ALVFD) was formed in 1962, it had five members and was supported by donations from community members. Alta Lake residents contributed axes, mattocks, shovels, stretchers, first-aid kits, hoses and more. When the ALVFD made their first purchase of a Wajax pump and 400 feet of hose for $305, Florence Petersen collected $15 from each property owner along Alta Lake Road. Regular fundraisers were established to provide funding from the ALVFD and the money raised was used to supply the firefighters with necessities. Members of the fire department continued to volunteer their time.

The fire department remained a volunteer organization for some years the Resort Municipality of Whistler was formed in 1975 and fundraisers continued to be an important source of funding. One fundraiser was the annual Ice-Break-Up raffle held in the spring. Each year, a barrel would be set out on the ice of Alta lake and tickets were sold with guesses of when the ice would break and the barrel would fall into the water (in 1976, Bob Dufour was announced as the lucky winner, though it was later revealed that an error had been made and the raffle should have been won by Guy Baervoets; both worked for the Whistler Mountain ski school). This tradition continues today, though it is now a fundraiser for the Point Artist-Run Centre rather than the fire department.

Volunteer firefighters Jim Crichton and Rick Crofton battled high winds and slippery ice to place the barrel in the centre of Alta Lake to mark the beginning of the 1984 Ice Break-Up Derby. Whistler Question Collection, 1984

Another annual fundraiser for the fire department was the Fireman’s Ball. This event was reportedly first held at Rainbow Lodge in support of the ALVFD, though it appears to have stopped by the mid-1970s. The Fireman’s Ball, however, was revived in 1985 to raise money for the Whistler Volunteer Fire Department’s (WVFD) Life Saving Equipment Fund. Specifically, the fire department wanted to purchase a Jaws of Life, a tool described to the Whistler Question by Fire Chief Lindsay Wilson as a “hydraulically operated cutting and spreading device used to gain entry to damaged vehicles, thereby facilitating speedy and safe rescue.”

Vancouver band Station to Station performed at the 1992 Fireman’s Ball, a masquerade held on October 31. Whistler Question Collection, 1992

The 1985 Fireman’s Ball on September 21 was one of the first community events to take place in the Conference Centre, which had held its official opening ceremony just two weeks earlier on September 7. Tickets were sold at local businesses and directly by members of the fire department. There was even a weekly Top Ticket Seller competition reported on in the Question.

With the support of volunteers and sponsorships from the community, the Fireman’s Ball was reported to have been a success, raising about $15,000 for the fire department. There was dancing the ballroom to the sounds of the Bobby Hales Orchestra, a full-service casino in the atrium area, a cash bar, and hors d’oeuvres. Organizers had promised it would “be THE social event of the year” and its popularity guaranteed that it would return in 1986.

Over 800 people turned out for the 1986 Fireman’s Ball, which included a casino in the atrium and the Dal Richards Band in the ballroom. Whistler Question Collection, 1986

Due to the success of the Fireman’s Ball, the fire department was able to purchase its Jaws of Life. On September 11, 1986, the driver of a 1985 Jaguar left the road while turning left at the intersection of Village Gate Boulevard and Highway 99. This was the first time that the fire department put its Jaws of Life to use, allowing them to remove the driver from the vehicle with a broken femur much more quickly than they otherwise would have.

Fire Chief Lindsay Wilson demonstrated the use of the Jaws of Life apparatus in front of the firehall. The equipment was purchased with funds raised from the first Fireman’s Ball in 1985. Whistler Question Collection, 1986

In 1998, the Ball was a smaller affair held at the GLC and the money was split between the fire department and the school’s Parent Advisory Committee. According to Alex Bunbury, who had then retired from the WVFD, the Ball had become less profitable for the department over the years as more events sprung up and the Ball was no longer “the only event of the year where Whistlerites dressed formally.” As Whistler grew, the fire department became a combination of paid and volunteer firefighters. The Ball became known as the Whistler Firefighters’ Ball as women such as Sheila Kirkwood joined the department and continued in different forms into the 2000s.

Fire at Alta LakeFire at Alta Lake

February 11, 2020 Whistler Museum 3 Comments

Prior to the formation of the Alta Lake Volunteer Fire Department (ALVFD), the Alta Lake area had no official response to fires – they were put out by the small community. But after two large fires in the early 1960s, some residents decided to form their own fire department.

The first fire is still a little mysterious. One a reportedly beautiful morning in April, a single passenger got off the Budd car at the Alta Lake Station. His outfit, a trench coat and dress shoes, drew the notice of everyone at the station as he asked Don Cruickshank, the station agent, how to get to the other side of the lake.

Waiting for the train at Alta Lake station, 1937. Left to right: Bill Bailiff, Mr and Mrs Racey, Ed Droll, Betty Woollard, Larry, Flo and Bob Williamson.

Later that same day, Dick Fairhurst received a call from Cruickshank to check on smoke coming from the area of an old empty lodge. Fairhurst and Louis White grabbed a small fire extinguisher and a bucket each and ran to Fairhurst’s boat. When they arrived at the lodge, they found that the fire had taken hold in some piles of lumber inside the three-storey building and that their buckets and extinguisher would be of no use. They also found a piece of candle at the back of the lodge, and footprints from dress shoes in the soggy ground.

By the time the evening train arrived, two RCMP officers from Pemberton were aboard and waiting to arrest the stranger in the trench coat, who had been pacing in the station while waiting for the train. Though we don’t know what happened to this mysterious man after his arrest, we do know that the date of the trial was set for June 6, 1962, the date of the second fire.

Cypress Lodge as seen from the lake. Fairhurst Collection.

This second fire appears to have been far more accidental than the first. The provincial government was building a new highway to connect old logging roads, small community roads, and the Pemberton Trail. The surveyors and their families were staying in cabins and lodges throughout Alta Lake.

One couple, Bruce and Anne Robinson, were staying in a cabin at Cypress Lodge, owned by Dick and Kelly Fairhurst. Anne chose June 6, a warm day with no wind, to make bread in the old Kootenay Range in the cabin. Dick was at the trial in Vancouver and Kelly had gone to vote at the Community Hall (it’s not entirely clear what the vote was for, but it is likely it was for the federal election). She and her children had just arrived home when Bruce arrived at Cypress Lodge to discover the roof of his cabin on fire. Kelly got on the party line, interrupting Alec Greenwood’s call to his mother-in-low to announce the fire.

Bert Harrop built cedar-bark furniture that was used in Harrop’s Tea Room, later the site of Cypress Lodge. The museum has some of his creations in our collection, but most were destroyed in a fire. Philip Collection.

Luckily, Bill and Joan Green and a group of loggers were hanging out at Rainbow Lodge after voting. Bill radioed to the Van West logging operation to bring their fire pump, and Alex loaded his pump onto his tractor. Soon everyone in the area know about the fire, and many of them came to help.

The fire, which had started from smouldering sparks in needles on the shake roof, had spread to a storage shed, but the lack of wind prevented it from spreading further. Someone moved Dick’s truck onto the road, but other vehicles, piles of dry wood, and cans of gasoline, paint, diesel and propane were still around the property.

The two pumps were used to get the fire under control, and then to keep wetting everything down. The Robinsons lost almost everything in the cabin, and many pieces of Bert Harrop’s cedar-bark furniture that were stored in the shed were lost, along with the two-rope for skiing on Mount Sproatt.

Alex Philip spent the night patrolling the area for sparks, but the fire was truly out by the time Dick arrived home the next day. The community came together again to help with the clean up.

Dick Fairhurst, Stefan Ples and Doug Mansell rafting the fire shelter and its contents across the lake to Alta Vista, 1967. Petersen Collection

When the ALVFD was formed later in 1962, its members were Dick Fairhurst, Doug Mansell, Stefan Ples, and Glen Creelman. They held regular practises and, until the formation of the Resort Municipality of Whistler in 1975, relied on fundraisers such as the Ice Break-Up Raffle and the Fireman’s Ball to buy supplies. The residents of the valley relied on them in case of emergencies.