By Greg Joyce
The Canadian Press(CP)
Copyright 2006 Press News Limited
All Rights Reserved
KIMBERLEY, B.C. — Almost 2,000 people, including about 700 emergency service personnel from here and across the country, gathered in a community ice arena Monday to honour two paramedics who died vainly trying to rescue two other men.
“All of them are part of the heroic brotherhood and sisterhood of keeping people safe,” Lieutenant-Governor Iona Campagnolo said at the start of a moving 90-minute service to honour the two fallen paramedics and two other Teck mining company employees.
The paramedics — Kim Weitzel and Shawn Currier — were remembered and eulogized along with Robert Newcombe and Doug Erickson.
The memorial was preceded by a two-kilometre-long parade of about 700 paramedics, police officers, firefighters, military personnel, search and rescue workers and others.
Their procession began at a community centre in another part of the tourist-oriented community — a skiing and outdoors mecca — and proceeded through a residential area before arriving at the arena.
Family and friends of the four victims sat in the front row of the stage, which was bedecked with wreaths and photos of the four.
The emotional memorial included the Kimberley Pipe Band playing Amazing Grace as some of those in attendance wiped tears from their eyes.
Featured speakers included Campagnolo, B.C. Health Minister George Abbott, Mines Minister Bill Bennett and Kimberley Mayor Jim Oglivie.
“Mines have produced many benefits and haunted us with human tragedies,” said Campagnolo. “Too many of us take these working days for granted.”
Bennett, who lives in nearby Cranbrook, said he had met last week with the families of the victims.
“I told them we will get to the bottom of this tragedy and see that it never happens again,” Bennett said in his speech.
The freak accident is still under investigation but the first person to die was Erickson, who was working for a private contractor at the decommissioned Sullivan mine — which was for years the lifeblood of the town in the East Kootenay region of southeastern B.C.
He was taking air and water samples from inside a small enclosed shed, something he had done many times before.
He was discovered dead by Teck mining company employee Robert Newcombe, who called the paramedics.
When the ambulance paramedics responded, they died along with Newcombe.
Originally, a deadly gas, hydrogen sulphide, was believed to have been the culprit. But last week, B.C.'s chief mines inspector said no traces of toxic gases were found, but samples concluded the atmosphere in the shed was severely oxygen depleted.
Fred Platteel, the chief executive officer of the B.C. Ambulance Service, lauded Weitzel and Currier as two paramedics who loved their jobs.
Weitzel had been on the job for some years but was still relatively new to her chosen work while Currier was in training to become a full-fledged paramedic.
“We will keep them in our hearts and I promise you we will never forget them,” said Platteel.
Aileen Boyd, a Kimberley paramedic who knew and worked with Weitzel and Currier, delivered their eulogies.
“She was the sunshine of (husband) George’s life and some of it spilled out to us,” said Boyd.
She had been one of Currier’s instructors and said she was amazed at how much he loved his job.
One of Erickson’s closes friends, Mike Zamara, said he was “one of the many people who used to call Doug their best friend.”
He was known as ‘Dooger’ to many people and was an avid outdoorsman, a kayaking and canoeing enthusiast.
“Knowing Doug has made me a better person,” said Zamara. “If more people treated people and the environment the way Doug did the world would be a better place.”
Jack Hummel said his friend Newcombe was the ideal family man, loved by his children and wife and a pillar of the community in Cranbrook.
The Sullivan lead-zinc mine closed officially on Dec. 21, 2001, after 92 years of production.
At its peak, it employed more than 2,000 people but the workforce was down to about 700 before it closed.
After the closure, mine owner Teck Cominco (TSX:TEK.SV.B) began extensive decommissioning and reclamation.