Thousands of paramedics and other emergency workers from across Canada gathered in the small British Columbia town of Kimberley on Monday to pay tribute to two paramedics who died in a mining accident earlier this month.
(CBC)
FROM MAY 18, 2006: Police identify 4 people killed in B.C. mine
"They rest in honour; may they rest in peace," said Iona Campagnolo, the province's lieutenant-governor.
Co-workers and relatives organized the memorial service and parade to honour Kim Weitzel, 44, and Shawn Currier, 21, as well as the two Sullivan mine workers they had been trying to rescue: Teck Cominco contractor Douglas Erickson, 48, and company employee Robert Newcombe, 49.
On May 17, Weitzel and Currier had responded to a call for help at a water-testing shed at the decommissioned mine. They found the bodies of Erickson and Newcombe inside the shed, and soon collapsed themselves.
Only five B.C. paramedics have died on the job in the past 30 years.
Memorial called 'emotional event'
Aileen Boyd of the B.C. Ambulance Service, who was a friend and co-worker of Weitzel and Currier, said before the memorial service began that this is a hard time for the community.
"It will be an emotional event, but it's the highest honour," she said.
At the service, Boyd fought back tears as she spoke of the compassion her co-workers demonstrated toward other people.
"Recently I asked Kim for some advice on trimming a tree," she said. "She described a manoeuvre as if talking about a person that could feel pain if you cut the wrong branch off."
Erickson's neighbour, Mike Zimera, described him as an avid outdoorsman with a penchant for whitewater canoeing.
"One of Doug's sayings was there's nothing stopping us but fear and common sense," Zimera told the assembled crowd.
Still no cause of death identified
Investigators say they still don't know exactly what killed the three men and one woman. All they can say is that the shed had an oxygen-deficient environment.
"We will get to the bottom of this terrible tragedy," Bill Bennett, B.C.'s minister of state for mining, said Monday.
Bennett said he hopes a specific cause will be known within weeks, adding the provincial government will make whatever changes are needed to make sure this kind of accident doesn't happen again.