Thanksgiving, 2025
- kc dyer
- Oct 13
- 1 min read
Taking a moment to be thankful in the face of fire
This morning, in honour of the day, we here at The Watershed had a post ready to thank our readers and especially our subscribers, who help sustain this publication.
But after this very busy Thanksgiving Day, one that began for many people just before 4 a.m. when a neighbourhood house caught fire, it turns out we have a few more things to be thankful for.
Thank you to the firefighters of Lions Bay Fire Rescue and West Vancouver Fire Department for containing this dreadful event to one home.
And thank you also to long-time Public Works stalwart Garth Begley, who when he was pinged at home in the middle of the night because one of the Village water tanks was mysteriously running dry, didn't think twice. He hopped in his car, drove down from Squamish, flipped the service to the other creek's tank, and ensured that the firefighters had enough water to put out this fire.
We will have more to come on ways you can help the homeowner who lost his house, but for today, please share your thanks with these deserving friends of our community.
Donate to Lions Bay Fire Rescue HERE.
What are you thankful for this year? Share your thoughts below, or email us at editor@lionsbaywatershed.ca
Like what you're reading? For as little as $5/month, you can support local independent journalism by subscribing to The Watershed HERE.
It was another one of those times where all the practicing, all the planning, all the people, all the necessary emergency equipment and WATER....just clicked into motion. It wasn't a fluke.... this was practice and planning that ensured it wasn't worse. We cannot afford something like this to ever be worse. The Village Works, our fire leaders and membership, our communication fan outs, ESS, heck - the brave humans who ran around ensuring neighbours were alerted - Gratitude is essential but so is conscious action. We need to place more resources into emergency preparedness as a community..... because when it works.... it reeeeaaaaallllly works and it saves lives.
It is difficult to fully comprehend the magnitude of what occurred in the neighbourhood this day.
It is also hard to understand how it wasn’t worse. Much worse.
On this day I too am thankful. Thankful that Norma and Douglas, Rusty, Amber and Topaz are safe and their house was not affected. Thank you to all the LBFR women and men who saved the day and prevented the fire from spreading through our neighbourhood. Thank you Garth for jumping into quick action and heading to the Village promptly!
I am thankful we still have our home since for a few hours this morning the fire was raging next door and embers were flying everywhere. I am thankful for the LB fire department and Garth for saving the neighbourhood!