Vancouverites can expect several closed streets, vehicle barriers, and an increased police presence for the duration of the Honda Celebration of Light.
The annual fireworks show is one of the most popular events in Vancouver, attracting hundreds of thousands of people downtown each summer.
This year’s event will see a renewed focus on safety due to the Lapu-Lapu tragedy on April 26, which left 11 people dead and dozens injured after a vehicle drove into a crowd of people.
At a media event Tuesday, the Vancouver Police Department announced it would be deploying a visible increase in officers in the area for the three nights of the celebration.
“We’ll have officers walking the beaches, walking through the West End, the downtown core, and Kits Point, we’ll have our mounted unit on horseback throughout the West End. We’ll have our beach patrol officers out roaming around, working on gators, bicycles, motorcycles, officers from our gang crime unit, officers from our youth squad, and others,” said Sgt. Steve Addison.
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He says a “significant” number of streets in those neighbourhoods will close.
“We’ll have officers who are placed at strategic locations in those areas, at barricades to prevent vehicles from entering those areas. Those will be members of our traffic authority team, community safety personnel, and uniformed police officers. And those officers will be interacting with people, checking to see if people who are attempting to enter the area in vehicles are indeed residents there, and quite likely turning people away if they’re trying to come after 7 p.m. or if they’re not residents of the area.”
Addison says the department is urging visitors to leave their vehicles at home.
“If you’re coming down to spend the day, if you’re coming down to enjoy the fireworks, if you’re coming down to meet up with people, please leave your car somewhere else. Consider walking, consider taking transit. Find a way to get in there without your vehicle.”
He says concrete blocks will be placed at all access points to Denman Street from Robson to Davie streets.
“These Archer barriers are 700-pound steel barriers that can be strategically placed on the roadway and aligned in such a way to prevent vehicles from entering into an area to protect crowds, large groups of people. And they simply will replace what we’ve traditionally done, which is install heavy vehicle barriers or dump trucks along those areas.”
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Last week, the province published six recommendations for improving safety at public events.
The six recommendations include: conducting risk assessments, clarifying jurisdictional roles, establishing a centralized training and support hub, boosting local event delivery capacity, fostering local collaboration, and promoting learning through evaluation.
The Honda Celebration of Light is the city’s largest annual event, drawing nearly 1.5 million people to the shores of English Bay. This year, it will take place over the evenings of Saturday, July 19, Wednesday, July 23, and Saturday, July 26.
—With files from Monika Gul
