The settlement at the top of the Port Mellon Highway, north of the point where structural fire protection stops.
Where Port Mellon sits, and the other places we attend
around Gibsons. Every name on the map is a link.
North of a line that most maps do not show
Port Mellon is a settlement at the northern end of the Port Mellon Highway, in Electoral Area F of the Sunshine Coast Regional District and within Squamish Nation territory. That highway is the only road in. It passes Langdale Heights, Camp Elphinstone and Williamson Landing on the way up. It has no commercial district and depends on Gibsons for supplies and services.
The regional district's Gibsons and District Fire Protection Commission set out the fact that matters most here, in its agenda package of 21 October 2024.
The northern edge of the West Howe Sound Fire Protection District ends at YMCA Road.
SCRD Gibsons & District Fire Protection Commission agenda package, 21 October 2024
Nothing published since, up to 12 September 2026, says that boundary has moved. North of YMCA Road there is no structural fire service. The same commission set out what that does to an insurance file:
Properties without nearby fire hydrants may be classified by their insurance companies as semi-protected.
SCRD Gibsons & District Fire Protection Commission agenda package, 21 October 2024
The gap is a boundary, not a distance
A preliminary petition covering 69 properties northward along the Port Mellon Highway reached the regional district in November 2023. The petitioners proposed extending the district to take in properties 8 kilometres from the main hall at 790 North Road, with the remainder slightly beyond that but inside nine kilometres. The line is drawn short of these addresses, not far from them.
The commission names Camp Elphinstone as unprotected, along with Langdale Heights RV Park just north of Twin Creeks Road, which it records as predominantly full-time residents. It describes the majority of developed properties in the area as small to mid-size acreages with residential structures, plus a number of smaller waterfront properties at Williamson Landing.
On 24 March 2025 a house in the 1800 block of the Port Mellon Highway, at the corner of Wray Road, burned to the ground. The Gibsons department needed provincial Emergency Coordination Centre approval even to attend, and the approval it received did not extend to fire suppression beyond a rescue. Once it was established that no life was at risk, the firefighters at the scene had to stand down and leave.
The regional district's Andy Bellerby said firefighters without that approval have no workers' compensation or liability coverage at a scene.
A feasibility study on extending the service area was costed at $33,000 in the October 2024 agenda and reported at $35,000 in November, when the regional district first deferred it to 2027 and then compromised on 2026. In July 2025 directors still listed Langdale and Port Mellon among the places with no fire service.
The only place on this list the wildfire plan calls high risk
The regional district's Community Wildfire Protection Plan names Port Mellon among its communities of high wildfire risk. None of the other nine places covered here appears on that list.
On 9 August 2024 a wildfire burned past Port Mellon and Dogpatch at Plowden Bay. It reached one hectare and was first classified as out of control, then as being held. Fourteen firefighters, three operational field staff, aircraft and helicopters were assigned. No evacuation order or alert was issued and the highway stayed open.
Four hundred jobs came off this road in August 2026
On 20 August 2026 Domtar announced the indefinite idling of operations at the Howe Sound mill and the Bayview Fibre chipping facility, both at Port Mellon, affecting approximately 400 employees. The mill produces about 380,000 metric tonnes of northern bleached softwood kraft pulp a year.
With the mill idled, fewer vehicles pass these driveways at shift hours.
The residential part of Port Mellon is a small, historic enclave of housing on Dunham Road inside an industrial plan area, with vegetation on three sides. The Hillside and Port Mellon community plan designates geotechnical assessment areas for flooding, erosion and debris torrent hazards along the Dakota and McNair creek systems. In the fourth quarter of 2023 the RCMP logged 12 calls for service at Port Mellon.
What a check at Port Mellon covers
Whether the address sits north or south of YMCA Road, confirmed with the fire department duty officer on 604-741-8200
Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms tested, in a location where suppression may not arrive
Vegetation, needles and stored firewood cleared back from walls, decks and the roofline
Pump house, pressure tank and heat tape, and whether a tap still delivers after an outage
Heating on and steady, or the building drained down and the main valve shut
Taps run, tank and fittings inspected, and the floor below them checked dry
Culverts, ditches and the driveway surface after heavy rain off the creek systems
Doors, windows, outbuildings and gates, each fastening tested by hand
A dated, photographed record of every item here, sent by email
Most household insurance in British Columbia will only treat an empty house as covered in the heating season where a competent person looks it over as often as the policy states, commonly within four consecutive days, or where the supply is turned off and the system emptied. The interval is set by your own policy document. Read it.
What it costs
A scheduled check at Port Mellon is
$55 a visit, plus
$10 travel. The travel charge is the same
everywhere between Gibsons and Egmont. There is no minimum term and no joining fee.
See the full price list.
Where these facts come from
Every figure, date and quotation on this page was taken from one of these. They are
listed so you can read them yourself.
