As West Kelowna and much of the Central Okanagan continues to reel from the McDougall Creek wildfire there have already been many examples of tragedy and heroism. But like any TV show or movie, the drama has been broken up with a much-needed laugh.
Cue chief of the West Kelowna Fire Department Jason Brolund.
At Wednesday's daily briefing Brolund took the opportunity to break the ice and related to evacuees: "I'm still out of my house as is my family I'm feeling the same things you are. I'm running out of underwear too, folks."
The quip drew a big laugh. The off-the-cuff comment went viral to the point where Jason had to ask people not to send him underwear.
"This is who your fire department is, we live here. I employ a group of incredible professionals who are problem solvers, who love to be at work, who come up with some of the funniest and most outrageous things and who never fail to surprise me every day," Brolund said.
"So the fact that they're out there, taking care of Poomba, the pig and have an affinity for him. That doesn't surprise me," he said, referring to the local pig that survived the flames.
"This is just kind of who I am, the guys at the fire hall, they'll tell you, I probably would have cracked the underwear joke if it was just all of us," Brolund said, emphasizing though that he struggles with watching homes burn.
"It's not easy to go out and look at that. It's also really bugging all my people. I want the public to know that what you're seeing from me is a reflection of what all of my people are feeling," he said.
"But also that get up and go every morning is the same way that we're all feeling, we're gonna get this done."
