Sunday, July 27, 2014

Volunteering for the Hondo Celebration of Light Fireworks show Saturday July 26, 2014

Photo: Here's a photo of me and Uta in our Vancouver Volunteer Corps vests - mine is a different color as I was a "captain" last night - each team of three or four has one person named as the crew leader - this is done by the team leaders - who are either City of Vancouver Emergency Services personel or Vancouver Fire department personel.

I have a radio and clipboard - a flashlight and a small first aid kit - last night for the Fireworks - we had 4 teams on the downtown side and three over by Vanier Park - we had 4 no shows so our teams were two person only.
We were each assigned a sector to walk back and forth - and every hour to we move to the next sector - our prime goal is to act as Ambassadors for the City and to keep our eyes alert for any possible problems - if we spot something we radio it in to our command leader who them alerts which ever authority is needed - police or fire etc.
To my knowledge there were no incidents.
Part 2 is next

Here's a photo of me and Uta in our Vancouver Volunteer Corps vests - mine is a different color as I was a "captain" last night - each team of three or four has one person named as the crew leader - this is done by the team leaders - who are either City of Vancouver Emergency Services personel or Vancouver Fire department personel.

I have a radio and clipboard - a flashlight and a small first aid kit - last night for the Fireworks - we had 4 teams on the downtown side and three over by Vanier Park - we had 4 no shows so our teams were two person only.
We were each assigned a sector to walk back and forth - and every hour to we move to the next sector - our prime goal is to act as Ambassadors for the City and to keep our eyes alert for any possible problems - if we spot something we radio it in to our command leader who them alerts which ever authority is needed - police or fire etc.
To my knowledge there were no incidents.


Once the crowd was settling in for the big show we then moved onto our second role for the evening - crowd control at the Burrard or Yaletown Skytrain stations - in past years it has been a free for all - this year Translink put in place a plan to try and create a more orderly flow and I feel it went well. I was at the Burrard Skytrain station so this is what I experienced - it is the second station on the Expo and Milleninum lines and was expected to be the busiest for about an hour after the end of the fireworks - 100 people per train leaving Waterfront station every 2 - 3 minutes and upto 200 to board at Burrard - during the 45 minute rush there were only 3 times that the line stopped completely and only for a couple of minutes each time. By 11:50 we got our orders to stand down - return to our meet point - outside the Starbucks in the Hyatt Regency - turn in our vest and other equipment - with no incidents we didn't need to debrief.
For me it was a quick cheeseburger and pop at McDonalds in Royal Center and then a leisurely walk home.
This was my second VVC assignment and my first time doing volunteering for the Fireworks - I will do it again on Wednesday but not on the finale next Saturday. Hope you have enjoyed this rather lengthy recap of the event. I will also be posting it on my blog. Cheers!