seat a aa Aa ze. ste 2 i Oi nee ES £3 Atay staee vi SFR a Cold War Relics >, + A special report DOUG QUIBELL shows some items from the emergency hospital housed in an old Second World War bunker at the Terrace-Kiti- mat airport. The mabile hospital has 200 beds, three operating rooms and various medical supplies. SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN PHOTO. Old hospital still has a use By SARAH A. ZIMMERMAN HOUSED within an old Second World War bunker at the Terrace-Kitimat airport is a piece of history which has sat relatively untou- ched for nearly 40 years. Since the early 1960s a mobile 200-bed emergency hospital has sat packed in crates awaiting use. j‘It’s. potentially a. great, resource, but..we don’ I. ‘know ‘how to run it,” said Doug Quibell deputy chief of environmental health for the northern health authority. He’s also the emer- gency preparedness coordinator for health in the northwest. The emergency hospital is made up of 200 cots, oxygen masks, blankets, catheters, x-ray machines, three operating rooms and countless other medical supplies. The materials, which date back to the Cold War era, are wrapped in plastic and stored in wooden crates. “The purpose of these things mostly is if the hospital is destroyed,” explained Quibell. Emergency hospitals are a mobile salution ‘to the destruction or closure of local hospitals in the course of war or a natural disaster such as an earthquake. There are 17 such emergency hospitals across B.C. The supplies and equipment — which fill -two large transport trucks — would be moved to an empty warchouse or gymnasium and set up. ies quality supplies designed to, last generations, © Although the threat of the Cold War is something of the past, Quibeil said the hospi- tal remains a valuable commodity. He said the hospital would be an excellent resource in the northwest in the case of an earthquake or tsunami. The emergency hospital is owned by the federal government and administered in part- ., ership with. the. provincial govermmenL Though the, hospital is furbished with high | those who once knew how to operate it are not around anymore. “We're three generations away from anyone knowing how to set it up let alone run it,” Qui- bell said. “At this point it’s pretty much useless to any of us in (hat we’ve had no training or writ- ten procedure to use it. It’s basically a re- source in waiting.” Quibell hopes that money to pay people here to get training on how to set up and run the hospital will be available soon, That money comes from the Emergency Prepared- ness Branch of the provinciat health ministry. “They are in the process of organizing a (raining session in Victoria,” Quibell said. “We'll probably send about cight people from the north down to Victoria and pet them., trained to come back and train people here,” he said. The emergency hospital at the airport has a counterpart deep in the bowels of Kitimat General Hospital. Quibell said it is unusual to have two such emergency facilities so near together but he said the rationale for each was different when they were implemented. While the Terrace hospital was brought here in response to the Cold War threat, Kiti- ‘Mat was chosen. because of. its. location close -to,fhe coast, Quibell said... |. yee Because of its docks, Kitimat would ‘be... able to accept sea-borne evacuees from Van- couver or Vancouver Island in case of an emergency. Up until last week the fate of Kitimat’s . emergency hospital was unknown but Port Clements on the Queen Charlotte Islands looked like a likely new home. “They are the most at risk of any of our communities and we're working toward having it shipped out there,” Quibell said. Because the Charlottes are at risk for tsuna- mi they would be far more cut off to hefp than communities on the mainland in the case of that type of emergency. Last week Quibell learned the hospital is ‘being returned to Ottawa where it will be re- furbished and shipped out to a different com- _ finunity. Quibell said he’s disappointed the hospital isn’t going to Port Clements, but the decision lies with the province. Nuclear bomber’s fate unfolds in omithers THE STORY of an American nu- clear bomber which crashed on a mountaintop in the Kispiox Valley _in 1950 is being told through an exhibit at the Bulkley Valley Mu- seum in Smithers. Artifacts from the wreckage of the B-36B bomber known as Flight 075, photos of survivors and ‘a painting of the doomed Cold “War aircraft are part of what mu- seum officials hope will become a permanent. “We'd like ta see it become permanent but its uncertain if the artifacts will become ours or not,” says Jane Young, programmer and museum assistant. An atomic bomb known as a Mark:1V Fat Man was aboard the aircraft, headed for San Francisco from Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks, Alaska. The Feb. 13, 1950 mission was a simulated nu- clear attack on San Francisco. ' As Flight 075 flew along the coast of B.C. to California, it en- countered a severe winter storm _ near Prince Rupert. Icing condi- -tions were the first sign of trouble before three of its engines caught fire. At [hat moment, the aircraft was 90 miles south of the coastal community. - The bomb was released and detonated, but because the plu- tonium. capsule was not installed ‘in the bomb the explosion was only conventional — not nuclear. The crew of 17 were instructed by the pilot, Capt. Harold Berry to abandon ship over Princess Royal Island; Twelve men survived and. were res- cued off the island. Among the five men who went mis- sing was weaponeer and co- pilot Capt. Theodore F. Schreier. A strange flight pat- tern fol- lowing the evacuation suggests Schreier may have stayed on board and PHESE artifacts are part of an exhibit at the Bulkley Valley Museum in Smithers featur- flown the ing the story of a dagmed 1950s bomber. plane until it met its fate over the Kispiox Valley. An air disaster three years later, involving a plane scheduled to fly over Smithers, led to the discovery of the crash site of Flight 075. When the pilot failed to report to the Smithers airport a search was initiated. What the search team turned up was the wreckage of B-36B Flight 075, 100 miles northwest of Smithers on Mt. Kologet. Five attempts were made be- fore a U.S. Air Force investigation team reached the site in August, 1954. The suspected ‘real’ reason “for the team’s persistence was 10 retrieve the plutonium capsule. Although the U.S. Air Force maintained the capsule was a dummy, several Geiger counters — used to counter radiation — were dropped at the crash site. Incidents involving U.S. nu- clear weapons were code named Broken Arrow. The disappearance of B-36B was the first such acci- dent in the history of the U.S. Air Force. A painting of the bomber by Kamloops artist John Rutherford is on display at the museum, as well as the turret and Geiger counter recovered from the crash site al ! in tained by calling 847-5322. most 30 years ago. Jane Young says response to the exhibit has been very positive. “We were on CBC radio’s morning edition and we had people driving along the highway stopping in to see it,” Young says. “It’s a fairly interesting story especially if you. live in the valley.” A lecture on the enigmatic events of the crash, the situation surrounding the bomber’s mission and how the artifacts found their way to Smithers is being planned in conjunction with Mountainside Cafe. More. information can be’ ob- The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, April 3, 2002 - AS GE nnn CORRESPONDENCE FOR THE TERRACE STANDARD The Mail Bag Learning the hard way Dear Sir: In the fate nineteen sixties, a friend of mine left Alcan’s employment in Kitimat and invested $30, 000 in a plywood mill in Burnaby, B.C. My friend moved to the lower mainland and became an employee of the mill he had invested in. As he was part owner of the mill he did not benefit under the BC Labour Code as other workers do. One example is that he was expected to work overtime at straight time rates. The final result of-this experience-was that my friend walked away from his job at the mill. Of course he lost his $30,000 investment. He did learn a valuable lesson and never got caught in this situation again. The taxpayers of British Columbia are most tikely hoping that their government has also learned the same lesson after investing $400 million into Skeena Cellulose to eventually give it away for the paltry sum of $6 million. On one recent morning, the new president of SC! was a guest on a radio show describing the future he has planned for the company. He made a comparison of a similar quotation by J.F. Kennedy. He stated: “It is not what the company can do for you, but what you - can do for the company.” In other words how much is « your family willing to sacrifice so that I can enrich my family? All that any employee owes a company is a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay, plus one hour’s notice when they leave employment. The old days of master and servant do not apply; they are gone forever. Future management decisions should involve looking back as well as forward to draw lessons from experience in the hope the next generation can avoid the pitfalls of its predecessors. However the past has proven the present owners are incapable of doing so. In my opinion the new owners of SCI are the same ' ‘fly-by-night’ opportunists left SCE in the lurch in 1997. If SCI was a viable investment surely one would think that proven companies like Weyerhauser or Canadian Forest Products, with strong resources - behind them, would have come forward especially when SCi would have been handed to them for nothing. At least my friend learned his lesson the first time around. He did not go back for second and third helpings. ; Fred Glover, Terrace, B.C. | In praise of rescue help Dear Sir: On Aug. 21, 2001, I had an accident with my car. I was driving with my husband, our granddaughter and our dog as passengers, The car turned over possibly two times before coming to rest on the roof. My husband, Dexter, was relatively unhurt. He did what he could until help arrived, Our granddaughter and | were held upside down by the seat belts which _, fortunately we had, as usual; secured. ; My husband decided that he could safely release. our ‘granddaughter, Miraida Wallace, because ‘she was vigorously kicking and demanding to be let down. : I was held by the seat belt and by my left arm which. was out the window, pinned by the car, Help arrived scon. The rescuers removed Miranda and sent her off fo the hospital. They were able to . raise the car enough to remove me. I was transported by helicopter, initially to your’ hospital. My husband was transported to the hospital . where he was checked for injuries, Miranda and I° were sent by jet to Harbour View in Seattle the next day. Your rescue people and many others were not only. kind and generous, they were skilled and caring. Several women crawled into the car to comfort: Miranda as she waited to be rescued. Someone found ' and returned out little dog, Annie, to my husband. My injuries were a broken back, a badly hurt and. broken left arm and a pretty bad cut on my head, Today I am well. I am not back to normal but with therapy am on my way. My back is healed. My arm. was saved, The hair on my head is coming back. ] am sure that my recovery is to a large extent, thanks to’ the skill and training of your people. Thank you all for providing this service. Thank you. to all the people who helped my family. Dixie Duehn, Ketchikan, Alaska ' Thanks for ‘no’ vote Dear Sir: In light of recent events that occurred in our town : council regarding the casino gambling issue; I take. my hat off, and give the four members of this council , that opposed the new amendment a standing ovation. ~ Mayor Jack Talstra, councillors Val George, Rick, McDaniel, and Lynne Christiansen have shown me and the rest of this community a level of fortitude, « compassion and insight that I have seldom seen at any level of politics. Your sensitivity to the wishes of the people have shown that you rightly deserve the position with which you have been given. Your cate and concern for the sanctity of the individual and the family deserve to be commended. [ am personally excited by the fact that there is a high level of integrity within the council chambers. You have gained my trust and the trust of many others, There are elections this coming November and you have also garnered for yourselves some new found support, Support, might I add, in a big way. I not only speak for myself in this regard. As for now I can only encourage you to keep up the good work. On behalf of myself and many of my friends, | would like to thank you for your sincere commitment to the individuals and the families of this community. You four members are personally responsible for saving this town a lot of heartache. Mark Marchand, Terrace, B.C.~ About the Mail Bag Tha Terrace Standard welcomes letters. Our address is 3210 Clinton St., Terrace, B.C. V8G | 5R2. You can fax us at 260-638-8432 or a-mail. . us at sftandard@kermode.neat. No attachments, please. We need your name, address and phone number for verification, Our deadline Is noon Friday or noon Thursday if its a long weekend. ”