
The home of one of Cortes Community Radio’s most popular DJ’s burned down on Friday, September 20. Hiway Hippy had been living in a 38 foot long trailer at Breezy Bay Farm, on Saturna Island, since December. An RCMP investigation determined that the fire was caused by a short in the electrical system.
“I had the RCMP come. I thought it was suspicious. There was an explosion. It blew a hole in my hat, and it blew the glasses off my face. So I immediately thought ‘arson,’ but the RCMP fire inspector walked me through his inspection and explained everything to me. He told me that 90% of RV and trailer fires happened because of a short in the electrical,” explained Hiway Hippy.
His partner was outside, cooking a turkey, and Hiway Hippy was most likely speaking to the President of the Breezy Bay Farm co-op when the fire began. Returning to his trailer at about 4:25 PM, Hiway Hippy saw smoke coming from the spare room.
“It really took me by surprise because there’s nothing in there except pet food, empty boxes, and just some storage stuff. There’s no power outlets or anything being used there. I couldn’t get to the fire extinguisher because it happened to be in that room. As I turned to leave and run out of the trailer, there was an explosion,” he said.
Hiway Hippy grabbed a fire extinguisher from another trailer on the property. He tried to re-enter the burning trailer through the back door, but that caused a back draft and the trailer instantly went up in flames.
“There was nothing I could do except stand back, turn my video camera on and helplessly watch everything.”
Hiway Hippy managed to save both of his cats, but lost all of his earthly possessions.

“Two years ago my sailboat sank about the same time, and I started from scratch then. So I had the stuff that I had acquired over the last couple years. It was precious stuff. I had a signed edition of a book from Chief Dan George, I had some bear claws and first Indigenous trinkets that were in my medicine box to decorate my medicine bag, which was also in that box. All the food that we had managed to preserve this year to have winter stores was all in the trailer as well. At the end of the day, it’s all just stuff,” he said.
“There’s two routes you can take. You can either wallow in the devastation and the loss, or you can rejoice in the miracles that happen around you. Open your eyes and you see what’s happening. There’s definitely miracles happening in my life, and it’s all because of that community. I would encourage everybody to embrace the community, support your local merchants, your local farmers. Those are the people at the end of the day that are gonna be there and have your back. ”
HIway Hippy said his greatest need is to replace the two laptops, microphones, a mixer board and all the other equipment he used to produce The End of the Road Show.
“It’s been four years and I’ve been all over Vancouver Island, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan pumping the wattage to the cottage, as it were. I love what I do because it’s therapy for me. I can take in all the things that I see in the world that frustrate the heck outta me, and I turn that into music one day a week for two and a half hours. And it’s therapy for me, and I hope that it’s therapy for the listeners too.”
His last show was Wednesday, September 28. It is not certain when he will return to the airwaves.
Hiway Hippy arrived on Saturna Island ten months ago. He moved onto Breezy Bay Farm at the invitation of two individuals who were quarrelling with the four or five families living on the farm.

“Right around the first of April, there was a fight. Part of the fight was over who I was and what I was doing there, but mostly it was over their lack of following protocol and their privileged attitude. So they left the farm.”
Hiway Hippy was allowed to stay ‘on probabtion.’ He proved himself over the course of the next few months. He cut back blackberry bushes, fixed fences and did whatever other chores were needed.
When the farm’s Board of Directors held their AGM on September 1, they invited Hiway Hippy to become a lease holder on the farm.
The trailer that burned down last Friday belonged to the farm. So it was with much apprehension that he subsequently approached the manager.
“She asked me how I was doing, and I said, ‘Well, I don’t know. How am I doing? Am I going to be asked to leave now because of this fire?’”
“And she said, ‘Absolutely not!’”
Since then, a number of other members of the farm family have expressed their appreciation of his decision to stay on.

“The community has come together and I’ve got some clothes now. They’ve been bringing me meals. People have been putting money on my bill at the store, so that I can buy the food that I want instead of them picking food for me. I’ve got a pretty extensive network and I’ve had some deposits made, all the way from as far down south as Brazil and east to Great Britain,” said Hiway Hippy
“I really have to thank the community of Saturna Island, all the folks right from the fire department, the Outer Gulf Islands RCMP, the people at Breezy Bay Farms that have taken me in and wrapped their arms around me and accepted me for who I am, and I don’t have to walk on eggshells around them.”
Anyone wishing to help Hiway Hippy and his partner get on their feet financially out can make a direct deposit e-transfer to hiwayhippy4u@gmail.com.
Top photo credit: Hiway Hippy’s trailer burning- Photo courtesy Hiway Hippy
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