By Cheryl Jahn

Miracle Theatre funds Structural Protection Unit

Dec 16, 2024 | 3:58 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – A Comedy of Tenors was announced late last year as part of its annual fundraising for different organizations. At that time, they had earmarked the money for a Structural Protection Unit for the local Fire Department, the department’s first piece of wildfire-fighting equipment. And today, Miracle Theatre sets the wheels in motion, literally, with funding to the tune of $180,000, marking the total bill for the unit.

“It’s a unit that carries all of the hoses, pumps, sprinklers so we can put on homes in a neighbourhood to protect it if there’s a wildfire coming,” explains Tanya Spooner, Manager of Emergency Programs. “So this unit will protect 25 to 50 homes. And we were fortunate enough to receive funding for it through Miracle Theater last year.”

There have been a number of beneficiaries of Miracle Theatres’ generosity. Some of the recipients include the Salvation Army at just over $40,000, the United Way at just over $50,000 and, now wildfire fighting equipment.

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Why wildfire? Well, after being caught in two fires while travelling, it was obvious

“So it just started to sink in, of course,” explains Ted Price, Director with Miracle Theatre. “And then there’s fire after fire. When is Prince George going to be next? And so we thought, well, let’s see if we can help make Prince George a safer place.”

While the hope is to never have such a unit put to use – In other words, Prince George residents will not be threatened by fire – this unit will see some action come spring.

“Cross our fingers,” says Spooner. “But we are going to use it a lot for training. We have a second one that we’re going to try to get this year so that we have the ability to have more than 50 homes protected. And I think this is one of the things that we really will start to see as wildfires start to encroach on communities, as communities preparing and mitigating by making sure that we have equipment.”

Spooner says the hope is to get the process started to acquire a second unit at the end of next year.