If Kits still open, help would have come quicker: Union

A crew member on board a freighter in English Bay died of a heart attack Thursday, a sad occasion critics believe possibly could have been avoided if the Kitsilano Coast Guard Base was still open.
 

— BILL TIELEMAN Paramedics arrive near the old Kits coast guard base Thursday after attending to a freighter crew member in English Bay. Unfortunately, the seaman died from a heart attack. “We can’t say definitively ... but everything we know about search and rescue is that the quicker you get there, the likelihood of saving a life is dramatically better,” said Bill Tieleman, spokesman for the Union of Canadian Transportation Employees.

The federal government cut funding to the Kits base earlier this year, shuttering the station in February in a swift move that caught many offguard. Critics have lamented the additional time it now takes for a rescue hovercraft stationed in Richmond to respond to emergencies in Vancouver’s English Bay.

According to Tieleman, a distress call went out just after 4 p.m. Thursday from the freighter stationed near the western edge of Stanley Park’s Ferguson Point. Paramedics responded to the shores of Vanier Park, near the old coast guard station, to await ferry by Vancouver police boat to the freighter. A hovercraft from the Sea Island Coast Guard station was also sent directly to the ship.

Tieleman told The Province that nearly 40 minutes passed between the time paramedics were dispatched and when they finally reached the crew member. The hovercraft took about 25 minutes to reach the freighter.
It would have taken a boat only 10 minutes to reach the freighter departing from the old Kits station boat launch.

“We don’t want to draw conclusions that his life would’ve been saved, but we can say definitively the rescue services could have got there much faster if the Kitsilano coast guard station had been there to respond,” Tieleman said.