Kenny's Loggin' – Fire Marshalling In Menzies Bay

Sep 20, 2023 - one year ago

M+B Menzies Bay Division was the first union camp I worked for.

The I.W.A. (International Woodworkers of America) was formed in 1937. At one time it had over twenty thousand members and now are part of the United Steelworkers Union. When I started you had to work for thirty days before you were hired full time, like being on probation. Now I think it’s ninety days.

Fire Marshalling in Menzies Bay — *Photo contributed by Ray Harper*

Well I got my thirty days in and was hired. Logging back then had lots of entry level jobs, tree planting, setting chokers and hanging chains on the boom. These jobs were on the bottom end of the pay scale. Once you had some experience and were qualified you could move up to the higher paying jobs. In 1978, I was twenty-six and already had over ten years of logging experience.

The Yarding and Loading department (Y&L) had six steel spars and five grapple yarders along with various types of log loaders. Once the foremen found out I had some logging experience, I filled in at lots of various machines.

I was in the marshalling yard one morning, when I could see an older-looking foreman heading over to talk with the other foremen. Jim Amos was his name, he was the Fire Marshal. He says to Vic Bortolotto, “I need a helper today.”

“Here’s Kenny Wilson,” says Vic. “He’s an experienced logger; he can help you.”

Into his pickup we went, over to the Fire Shed where all the hoses and pumps and other equipment for fighting fire was kept. We got to talking about our logging history, I mentioned my family was from Duncan; Jim mentioned he had some experience down there. I mentioned my Dad’s name was Dennis Wilson, and right away he said, “So, you’re Smitts’ kid.” Apparently Jim was a foreman for a trucking outfit around Duncan and Mill Bay. My Dad said he drove a pickup truck with dual exhaust stacks; it was a hot truck in those days!

We loaded a fire pump, some hoses, and a forty-five gallon drum into his pickup. Then we drove behind the fire shed, where a couple of HDX trucks with water tanks on the back (slip-ons) were parked. There was also a half dozen or so Ford F-500 trucks with tanks on the back that I could drive.

“Can you drive one of these?” Jim asked.

“No, I’m not a truck driver,” I answered.

“Good,” he said. “I like driving but they say I’m getting too old.”

When the HDX was warmed up, Jim said, “Follow me, we’re going to Iron River.”

We parked the HDX at the Iron River gate and went up the Oyster River Mainline to the first aid shack, which was like another marshalling yard. We would drive around and find spots were it was suitable to fill up the big water tanks on the back of the HDX. One place had a small creek about three feet wide and a couple of inches deep. We placed the forty-five gallon drum with the bottom cut out in the creek so the water could run into it. At the other end he put an eight-foot piece of hard plastic pipe into the large hole of the drum, then he screwed an adaptor on the end to hook a fire hose to. The fire hose went to the road where we placed a sign that read, “Fire Tanker Fill-up.”

I helped Jim for a few days moving fire trucks around the claim and setting up tanker fill up spots. We had some good conversations driving around. It turns out I went to school with his son Denny and daughter Brenda. Denny was employed at Menzies and sister Brenda was married to Earl Einarson who also worked there, along with older brother Larry Amos.

When we were down at Iron River and Jim wanted to get me back to the marshalling yard at Menzies, he would drop me off at my place about an hour early from quitting time and said that he would fill in the time card for me. What a guy!

Ken Wilson worked in the logging industry in B.C. for over 50 years. Ken is a regular contributor to Supply Post newspaper with his column “Kenny’s Loggin’”, and resides on Vancouver Island, B.C.