Residents snap up free salt distributed at city fire halls
Vancouver residents now have some salt to go with their beef.
Following days of widespread outrage over slick sidewalks and icy roadways, the City of Vancouver delivered rock salt to 10 local fire halls and invited residents to scoop it up and take it home.
The promise of free salt led to huge lineups at many of the fire halls Wednesday morning, with some residents leaving empty-handed as the supply quickly ran out.
At some of the halls, a lack of monitoring salt supplies the night they were delivered resulted in people loading up pickup trucks and storage bins, causing widespread shortages and even black market salt offerings on the Internet.
On Wednesday afternoon the city responded by bringing in an extra 20 tonnes of salt and imposing a one five-gallon bucket limit.
Glen Lougheed, 42, who lives on Adanac Street, went to Fire Hall 14 on Wednesday morning and lined up for more than an hour before being told the supply had run out. He went back in the afternoon and was able to get a bucket of salt. “It was gone very quickly,” he said.
“We have a lot of old, retired people in the neighbourhood and we want to keep the sidewalks safe,” Lougheed said. “It feels like oldschool Russia standing here in a big lineup for supplies.”
Carolyn Coulter of East Vancouver arrived at Fire Hall 14 early Wednesday morning and after waiting more than an hour she called city hall. She was told the salt was gone and there would be more in the afternoon.
“This is brutal,” she said. “Everyone is standing around freezing and no one bothers to tell us the salt is all gone.”
On Thursday, the city will drop off more salt in the morning and then again in the afternoon to the fire halls for residents to take home.
Environment Canada meteorologist Armel Castellan said another big blast of winter from the Alaska Gulf will move down to B.C. starting late Thursday. He predicts two to five centimetres of snow by Friday with further unsettled weather over the weekend.
“Expect it to be quite messy for the weekend,” he said. Next week, it will likely remain cold.
Rebecca Bell, at the Greater Vancouver Shelter Strategy, said they are operating shelters at full capacity, adding the cold weather has been tough on the homeless.