The period from Friday to Friday, January 28 to February 4 was not extremely busy for Sooke emergency personnel according to the chief, although motor vehicle accidents, one-per-day from Friday to Sunday, demanded the attention of local crews.

None involved serious injuries although three vehicles sustained enough damage to qualify as write-offs as per Sorensen’s report.

Six medical calls, none of a gravely serious nature, were responded to as well over the course of the seven day period.

A fire alarm was triggered by an overheated furnace at the Butler Brothers gravel operation near Edward Milne Community School.

Emergency personnel dealt with a complaint of a “weird-looking reddish substance” in a ditch along Church Road. The material was assessed as some sort of iron-oxide compound.

“Not something you’d want in your water system,” as Sorensen described, “but relatively harmless.”

The chief closed with some good news involving a successful grant application to the Joint Emergency Preparedness Program. A local amateur radio group will receive $3,500 with which to upgrade equipment.

Sooke Fire Chief Steve Sorensen