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The CVRD board is happy to hear statements of support with regard to the new firehall. It obviously won’t change the results of the AAP, but if it did fail, it might ensure that the question will at least go to a referendum instead of the project being cancelled altogether.

Yes, its possible that the CVRD board could completely cancel the project if they feel that the negative responses were in sufficient numbers to indicate a lack of general acceptance. If they were to get messages of support for the project it would suggest a more even split and make it less likely that we would have to start all over.

You can send a supportive email to administration@comoxvalleyrd.ca

Why does a quonset hut building not work for a firehall? I keep hearing this question, so here’s a stab at why it will not work…

I often worry that not everyone understands the role that we play in emergency response on our isolated island. If someone is having any emergency, no matter what it is… a heart attack… a fire… a collapsed house… fallen and can’t get up… panic attack… they’ll see us. There is no BC Ambulance. There is no specialty hazmat response unit. There is no dedicated cliff rescue team. There is no neighboring department on which we can call. There is only Hornby Island Fire Rescue for at least the first 2 hours and we have to be trained in all those disciplines. That is what makes us different from almost all other rural departments.

We do so much more than put out fires. In fact firefighting is one most infrequent jobs that we do. More than half of our calls are for medical emergencies that anywhere else in BC would be a visit from BC Ambulance.

We are not trying to build just a garage to store trucks. This is a building that serves as a base for all of our emergency operations. It’s a depot to store our equipment in a warm, dry spot. It’s an “ambulance” station. It’s a workshop to maintain our specialized gear so we don’t have to send it off island. It’s a kitchen so we have a place to make food while out on long emergency calls or when we get back to the hall at 5AM. It’s a shower and laundry facility to wash the toxic chemicals off of our gear and and bodies. It’s a training center. It’s a public space where we can hold cadet camps and open first aid workshops. Its a meeting room where we can debrief after emotionally damaging incidents. It needs to be warm, dry, comfortable, and safe. Coming back to a quonset hut at dawn, soaking wet, cold, and hungry is beyond unappealing.

If you really don’t think we should borrow money to build a new fire hall, then by all means fill out your Alternative Approval Process form and mail it in. If, on the other hand, you are concerned with the process and the switch to AAP, then before you fill out your form in protest, please consider this: Doing so will make the Fire Department and the community at large pay. Rejecting the project through the AAP will put off the start date of the project for three to four months, add several thousand dollars to the budget to pay for a referendum, negatively impact the department morale, and probably raise the construction costs of the project.

Yes, the electoral assent process is messed up, and we’re just as disappointed with the switch as anyone. No members of HIFR had any clue that this was happening until days after the cancellation when a community member posted on the Internet.

If you want to voice your displeasure over the process switch, please contact your newly re-elected director, Bruce Jolliffe, and tell him how you feel. Before filling out the AAP form just to protest the process, though, please consider the costs – both financial and human.

People may think that here on Hornby Island we aren’t exposed to the events that can trigger PTSD. In the last couple of years our members have:
– Extricated a woman who died falling off of the cliffs at Helliwell
– Removed a 2 day old dead body from a boat
– Removed a burned body from the smoldering ashes of a house.
– Been chased off of a property by someone wielding an ax.
– put in in several 12 hour days looking for a lost kayaker
– performed CPR on several friends and neighbors that didn’t make it.
And that’s just since I’ve been involved. It’s exactly the stuff that can trigger PTSD. Look after your precious volunteers!

Here’s a CBC story about looking after firefighters with PTSD.

CVRD staff has prepared a report to the CVRD board with the latest cost estimates for the new firehall. Also in this report is an explanation of an additional Community Works Fund grant that could be used to fund the additional construction costs of using a passive house style of construction.

Click here for the report

Our Fire Patrol has been getting a rough ride in the last week from off-island partiers on the beach. As soon as our guys walk away after extinguishing a fire the beach rats taunt them and light up another one. With no RCMP on island the punks figure that they have free reign to flaunt the fire ban.

Last night at 2AM we had enough of the disrespect of both our patrollers and the fire ban, and when the idiots refused to do without a fire, we rolled our trucks and showed up with a bunch of firefighters and a 1000 gallon per minute pump. That sent them scurrying like vermin. The disaster that they left was shocking and the photos don’t do it justice. Many glass bottles had been tossed into the fire where they had broken and been buried under burning coals; beer cans and liquor bottles were strewn as far as they could be thrown.

We pulled as much of the glass as we could out of the fire before putting it out. We then hosed down the surrounding area to make it as wet and unpleasant as possible in an attempt to keep them from returning that night. At least one had injured her foot on broken glass while fleeing, and we were able to track some of them down at the campsite where we got some names, license plate numbers, and contact info. More as that develops.

The August long weekend is always our busiest, so we thought we’d up the ante by adding a pancake breakfast to the mix. Staying true to predictions, we had 6 calls in the 24 hours leading up to the breakfast. The last of these calls finished at 3AM, just 3 hours before having to get up to prep.

At 8:50AM there were people lined up for pancakes, bacon, coffee, blueberries, and juice. And even as we started to dismantle the stoves at noon, there were still stragglers rolling through.
The breakfast was to raise funds for a thermal imaging camera, and the proceeds from the breakfast – $4100 – almost covers it. The balance will come from the Fire Department’s operations budget and a donation from the firefighters’ volunteer fund.

So many people helped us put on this event and I’ll list them at the end of the page, but I have to acknowledge Chief Giff LaRose for his vision and tireless efforts to make it happen. Well done, Chief!

• Larry and Margit from Little Tribune Winery, who made a very generous contribution of boxes of organic blueberries,
• Dale Armstrong of Hornby Island Coffee provided some great coffee,
• Denman Island Fire Department lent us all their grilling equipment and gave us a wealth of information gleaned from their 30-year tradition of doing these breakfasts,
• All sorts of people from the community who stepped up to help out: spouses and families of HIFR, members of the  the RCMP, the fire committee, Islands Trust reps, and the fire department members themselves.

Thank you to everyone who came or made a donation. It was a fantastic event!

The Ministry of Forests Lands and Natural Resource Operations has announced that effective at 12 noon on Thursday, August 1, 2013, all open fires, including campfires are banned in the Coastal area, which includes Hornby Island. Pursuant to Bylaw 2732, the ban is in effect on Hornby Island until further notice.

To see the current information issued by the Ministry please refer to this link: http://bcwildfire.ca/hprScripts/WildfireNews/Bans.asp

 

 

 

HIFR is holding a pancake breakfast on Sunday, August 4th from 9am until noon. We’ll be serving pancakes with blueberries, syrup, bacon, veggie links, coffee, and juice. The cost is $10 for adults and $5 for kids under 12.

This is a fundraiser to enable us to buy a thermal imaging camera. We’ll have the camera at the breakfast so you can try it out. Come see the celebrity pancake flippers, meet your firefighters, tour the hall, check put the trucks, and enjoy a great breakfast. See you at the firehall.

Achieving the “Superior Tanker Shuttle Accreditation” is one of our priorities. It’s a long process, though, involving new apparatus, complicated calculations, and a tonne of practice. The idea is that if the department can show that we can deliver sufficient water to pump a constant 200 gallons every minute for a full 2 hours to any location on island every household gets a massive saving on their insurance bill. It would be as though you lived on the same block as a fire hydrant.

Last night we completed a small but important step in achieving this goal.  We did a full 2 hour cycle of delivering water to prove our calculations were in the ballpark, and they were! We still have a lot of work to do in building the new firehall, designing and purchasing the second tanker truck, recruiting and training new drivers/pump operators, and successfully challenging the Underwriters’ demanding test.

Thank you to everyone on our route that put up with seven trips of our water tanker past their front yard. If you have any questions about this process or what it might mean to you, please call the firehall at 335.2611. Also feel free to stop Deputy Doug Chinnery or Chief Giff LaRose when you see them out and about. We love to talk about it.