Archive For The “news photo” Category
Kitimat’s Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue Station 63 (SAR 63) christening its new enclosed rescue vessel on Saturday, October 25, 2014 at MK Bay marina. Almost all the more than $600,000 need for the state-of-the-art rigid hull inflatable Type II Falkins Class dedicated rescue boat was raised locally by the Kitimat Marine Rescue Society with support from local businesses, the District of Kitimat and individuals as well as grants from BC gaming.
As SAR 63 says on its website:
RCM SAR 63 Kitimat is located at the head end of the Douglas Channel on the North Coast of B.C. The station was founded in 1988 and is supported by the Kitimat Marine Rescue Society. The area served is from Kitimat to the Hecate Straits. Mission distances and durations are the longest of all RCM SAR stations. The nearest Canadian Coast Guard station is 130 nautical miles with response time in a 8 hour window. The Kitimat Station is considered a prime resource in the area.
The Douglas Channel and area reach 80 kilometers inland from the inside passage. The narrow fiords through the mountains produce extreme winds and temperatures. In winter the salt spray freezes before it lands on the boat and crew. Minus 20 is not uncommon.
Snowflake Responder III, left, and the open Snowflake Responder II, tied up at Kitimat’s MK Bay Marina. Snowflake Responder II is an open 26 foot (eight metre) rigid hull inflatable powered by twin 200 horsepower outboards. Cruising speed is 35 knots with a range of over 200 nautical miles.
Kitimat mayor Joanne Monaghan waits to speak at the start of the christening ceremony for the new Snowflake Responder III.
Duncan Peacock, president of the Kitimat Marine Rescue Society and veteran member of Station 63 speaks about the new vessel prior to the christening ceremony. (Robin Rowland)
Sammy Robinson, the eleventh Haimus, hereditary Chief of the Haisla Nation at Kitimaat Village, explains that he will use a traditional Haisla blessing for a new canoe, a ceremony that hasn’t been used for decades, during the christening of the Snowflake Responder III, as Duncan Peacock, seen reflected in the window, listens. (Robin Rowland)
Sammy Robinson prepares to bless the Snowflake Responder III and banish any hostile spirits from the boat. (Robin Rowland)
Sammy Robinson uses down feathers as part of the blessing ceremony. (Robin Rowland)
Kitimat mayor Joanne Monagahan uses the traditional bottle of champagne (inside a safety jacket) to christen the Snowflake Responder III as coxswain Christopher Peacock watches. (Robin Rowland)
The Snowflake Responder III does a demonstration practice in Kitimat harbour (Robin Rowland)
Snowflake Responder III (Robin Rowland)
Approaching the dock at MK Bay Marina. (Robin Rowland)
The Snowflake Responder III is a Falkins Class Type II Vessel with the following specs: – LOA: 33′ – Beam: 11’9″ – Draft: 28″ – Top speed: 40 knots – Cruising speed: 30 knots – Crew: 4 to 5 – Maximum capacity: 12 – Stretcher capacity: 3 – Gross weight: 17,000 lbs – Engines: Twin D6 Volvo – Horse power: 435 per engine – Propulsion: Twin Hamilton Jet Drives – Service years: 30 – Range: 240 nautical miles – Infrared heat sensor: “FLIR” M626 |
The CCGS Gordon Reid, a Canadian Coast Guard offshore patrol vessel, is seen on a stormy, wet and windy Douglas Channel, off Coste Island, south of Kitimat, on Sunday, Oct. 5, 2014.
The Gordon Reid is currently (as of 2200 Oct 17, 2014) towing the Russian container vessel Simushir which lost power off the coast of Haida Gwaii and threatened to run aground on the island’s pristine shores. (CBC story as of 2200 Oct. 17, 2014)
Updates with cause, Friday morning situation
A wildfire broke out in the Strawberry Meadows neighborhood, about two kilometres south of Kitimat, around 4 p.m. on Thursday, July 17, 2014. Kitimat Fire and Rescue quickly responded to the call, setting up a command post at the back of the Oviatt Contracting construction yard which was close to the fire. The District of Kitimat says the fire was caused by an unattended canpfire on the Kitimat River bank. The fire began about 100 metres square and driven by strong winds, quickly spread to two hectares and then about three. (The District release says the fire was about one hectare, the one to three hectare estimate came from those on scene at the time). Oviatt officials say the fire was technically in Haisla territory, within the boundaries of the estuary and river reserve area #1, a traditional Haisla fishing area.
Kitimat Fire and Rescue found that the overgrown brush near the river was too thick and called in the BC Wildfire forestry service firefighters. As they waited, Kitimat Fire organized a firebreak with the help of Oviatt employees on site which luckily had all the heavy equipment needed to cut a gap through the bush to the river. By 5 p.m. winds had spread the smoke and haze throughout the town.
At one point fish camps on the Lower Dyke Road were evacuated as a precaution. First one, then two Forest Service helicopters arrived to fight the fire, and later were joined by a aerial tanker from Smithers which made about six or seven drops on the fire. A second firebreak was pushed through the bush.
The tanker was then redirected to a fire near Terrace while the helicopters continued to drop water on the fire. At the height of operations, according to a release from the District of Kitimat, seven BC Forestry Service Firefighters on the scene and 12 Kitimat Firefighters were there monitoring the fire guards for any hot spots.
The firefighters were worried that strengthening winds would drive the fire either toward the upscale homes in Strawberry Meadows or toward the fishing camps along the river on the Lower Dyke Road. While the wind did become much stronger in the early evening, the weather was quickly turning cool and there were light raindrops by the time the District said the fire was contained at 8:18 p.m. Kitimat Fire and Rescue left a crew at the Oviatt site overnight to monitor for hotspots.
As of Friday morning forestry crews were surveying the area for “a dangerous tree assessment” and to check for hotspots. The District of Kitimat reminded everyone in the news release that a campfire ban is in effect.
A fire that began in the kitchen destroyed a house on Lillooet Street in Kitimat on the afternoon of July 14, 2014. Everyone who was in the house at the time got out safely.
Update: There is now a fundraising campaign to help the family
Residents of Kitimat, BC, voted “No” Saturday, April 12 in a plebiscite that sort of asked them if they supported the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline and tanker terminal project.
The vote was 1,793 opposed versus 1,278 who supported the project — 58.4 per cent to 41.6 per cent. The plebiscite called by the District of Kitimat Council caused rifts in the community during the campaign and raised tensions with the Haisla Nation. If it ever goes ahead, the Northern Gateway terminal would be in Haisla traditional territory and most members of the First Nation oppose the project.
It was a municipal plebiscite, called by the District, and that meant that only residents of the municipality could vote. So members of the Haisla Nation who actually live in Kitimat could cast ballots, but members of the Haisla who live in Kitamaat Village, a federally designated Indian Reserve, could not. All the same, many Haisla felt that they should have some input on what goes on in their traditional territory. Some of the Haisla decided to demonstrate against the vote as polls closed. When the “No” result was announced, the demonstration turned into a celebration.
I was shooting on assignment for The Canadian Press and filed two images, one of a Haisla drummer that appears in The Province and a dancer, in the Globe and Mail.
Many of the images of the celebration, taken at night with flash, were rather noisy.
So I decided to try a technique I’ve used before with night shots, converting to black and white. After a couple of test images, I decided to go for 1960s look, using the Tri-X emulator in Photo Effects 8. (For younger folks, Kodak Tri-X black and white film was the standard for journalism for decades before digital).
There is a tradition in Kitimat, British Columbia, that children lay wreathes at the cenotaph, representing those individuals and groups that are unable to attend.
Here are some images of Remembrance Day 2012, in Kitimat.
In all my journalism career, I was never assigned to cover the Queen on a Royal Visit (always stuck in the office). But as Her Majesty celebrates her Jubilee this weekend, I had a vague memory that, when I was living in London, I had managed to get a few somewhat close shots of the Queen. ( I did shoot the Royal Wedding from The Strand but didn’t get anything that great of the Royals) So I hunted through my slide boxes, to see if my memory was correct and what the pix were like.
The shots were taken at a racetrack in England likely sometime in July or early August, 1980, which track I can’t remember and my notes are long gone. I had worked in the UK for about a year and was about to leave to return to Canada after getting a job offer back home in Toronto. My friends offered to drive me around the countryside to some of the sites I wanted to see. Somehow, we ended up at this race track just as the Royal Family appeared. And luckily, there I was in the stands not too far from the track and was able to get some shots. Not the best, but in retrospect, perhaps revealing. Camera Minolta SRT 101, 135mm lens, Ektachrome film.
So here we have two ladies-in-waiting (?) one in an over-feathered white hat, the second in a broad brimmed black hat and the Queen. This would have been taken about a month after the royal wedding.
The Queen, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and two dudes in top hats. I also like the old lady in the background grabbing the rail so she can get a better view.