In July of this year there was a large forest fire near Edgewood which grew to a peak size of 350 hectares. It drew in a large number of firefighting personnel from all over B.C., which of course is not hard to remember if you live in the area. One thing not mentioned so much was the restaurant which fed the firefighters and provided them with free wireless internet.

Cam Walton, a co-owner of the Arrow Lakes Grill in Edgewood, says their restaurant only opened this year on July 9. The massive fire was reported on July 17. Having only been open for just over a week, the owners of the restaurant opened their arms to the firefighters, who came from places like Prince George and Vernon, who not only needed food, but being in Edgewood, had only one way to contact relatives – by pay phone.

“They all had cell phones which don’t work in Edgewood,” says Walton. “They all have email and Facebook, and there was no internet in Edgewood.”

The first day, Walton says it started out as 20 people coming to the restaurant for food, the next day it was 40, and the next 80 and then the restaurant was asked to feed 120 people.

“It got to be quite overwhelming very quickly considering we had just opened,” she says.

Walton, being an employee of Telus as well as co-owner, figured there had to be a way to bring internet into the restaurant. After herself feeling deprived of being able to surf and check email, she splurged and bought a $950 piece of equipment which is is a radio shot that connects to the tower recently installed internet tower.

After getting the equipment hooked up, Walton approached Telus about laptops for the firefighters to use.

“I went to Telus and said, ‘You know what, there’s all these firefighters here and they want to be able to check their emails after they work all day. Is there anything we can do to get some laptops so that, when they’re eating their meals, they can check email, do their Facebook and all the other good stuff’?,” says Walton. “Telus said absolutely. They supplied four laptops that were wireless enabled.”

She continues that the firefighters were relieved and having the internet really helped them connect back with their families. A lot of them have kids and wives, she says.

When you’re not used to not being able to get online it’s tough enough, let alone working 18 hours a day fighting a pretty massive fire, she says.

The laptops went back to Telus after the fire was controlled and the firefighters left town, says Walton.

“The fire itself was a huge event for the town...” she says. “There was a massive tent-city that [the firefighters] set up and everybody was really just helping out and trying to do what was best and trying to support them because that’s a crumby job. It was a senseless fire.”