This will be a weekend to remember.
City of Langley Mayor Peter Fassbender — joined by representatives from the local firefighters union and CUPE — lowered a black and white flag to half mast in front of City Hall on Friday morning, in honour of workers across the country who died or were injured on the job during the past year.
Each year since 1991, April 28 has marked a National Day of Mourning in Canada.
Because that date falls on a Sunday this year, the City held a brief ceremony two days early. It concluded with the lowering of the flag, which will continue to fly at half mast throughout the weekend.
Speaking before a small group of municipal employees gathered on the front steps of City Hall, Fassbender said that while he would like to be able to one year announce that nobody in Canada had been killed or injured as a result of doing their job, this is once again not that year.
“It’s an issue that continues and needs our vigilance,” he said.
The recent fatal fire in the Elm building at Rainbow Lodge, just a few blocks from City Hall, served as a stark reminder that first responders’ jobs, like many others, are inherently dangerous, said Fassbender.
Seeing the black smoke pour from the building and watching crews administer oxygen to a resident before she could be rescued from her balcony filled the mayor with mixed emotions, he told the gathering.
While he was upset by the tragedy unfolding in front of him, Fassbender said, he couldn’t help but take pride in the response from the City’s emergency crews and the Township firefighters who came to help.
The Township of Langley held a pair of ceremonies on Friday morning — one at the operations centre and another at the civic facility.
