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It is with shock and profound sadness that we learn of the death of retired Fire Chief Gifford LaRose, who passed away suddenly while on vacation. Giff was a 20-year member of Hornby Island Fire Rescue and served as Chief for 15 years until his retirement in 2017.

Chief LaRose’s legacy with HIFR will be remembered as one of realized vision. Among other things, he was responsible for a network of water sources across our island, and was the driving force behind our beautiful new fire hall. Our department and the safety of our community is where it is today largely due to Giff’s vision and hard work. Aside from his incredible body of work with HIFR, he served on several community-based boards and worked hard to make our island community a better place to live.

We are devastated to hear of his passing and are holding his family and many friends—both inside and outside of the fire service—close in our thoughts.

The Superior Tanker Shuttle Service (STSS) accreditation is an endorsement from the Fire Underwriters Survey that a fire department can deliver—with trucks—the amount of water equivalent to a fire hydrant to every house within 8 km of the fire hall.  With this accreditation comes an improvement in the home owner’s fire insurance rating to “3BS”.

After 10 years of planning and practice we have achieved this accreditation by showing we are able to pump 200 imperial gallons of water per minute for 2 hours. For HIFR this involved using three portable tanks, two water tanker trucks, a pumper truck, 10 personnel, and hundreds of hours of training.

In 2015 we told the community that if they built us a new fire hall, we would save them money on their fire insurance by getting the STSS accreditation. Within a year of moving into the new fire hall we successfully challenged the accreditation test and fulfilled our side of the bargain. This is a monumental achievement in the history of HIFR and we are all incredibly proud of what we have accomplished.

We are working on an information package for you to present to your insurance company to realize some savings on your premiums. In the meantime, at the bottom of this post are links to letters from the Fire Underwriters Survey that may help inform your Insurance broker.

Please feel free to call Fire Chief Doug Chinnery at the fire hall at (250)335-2611 if you have any questions.

 

There was an incident just before midnight last night near Mushroom Beach at Helliwell Provincial Park. Two fellows had problems with their boat motor and were just able to limp into the sandstone shelves north of the beach. They refused help from the fire department, choosing instead to weather out the night close to their boat.

In the morning they discovered their boat had been beat up on the rocks, the motor had come off the boat and sunk, and the gas can was no where to be seen. Apparently wallets, keys, and some other personal items are also sleeping with the fishes, as they say.

We have the fireworks at the fire hall and HIFR members are getting together on Sunday afternoon to fuse them and get them all ready to go. Weather permitting they’ll be set off at the Outer Island farm field at 8PM sharp.

We encourage you to stay outside of the fence and the best viewing area will near the water tank at the corner of Porpoise and Depape.

I just got the latest newsletter from the Coastal Fire Center which contains a lot of great information about what makes up the various categories of burn piles.

Is your pile a category III or category II? Did you know that you are legally obliged to only light up your burn pile if the venting index is “good”?

If you plan on burning a pile of waste in your backyard please have a look at this newsletter.

Our end-of-summer barbecue was held last week and was mainly a retirement party to honour Iain Palmer’s 31 years of service to our community.

Iain was one member of the team that began our First Responder program back when sick people were being driven off island in the back of a station wagon. He was instrumental in acquiring our first ambulance.

He then went on to do our fire inspections and served as public safety officer. Iain is one of those people who doesn’t say a lot, but when he does speak up it’s always worth paying attention to. Thank you to Iain for his many years of public service and for his even keel and wise words.

Yesterday our duty officer responded to a smoldering log at the parking lot at Little Trib.  Someone had put out a cigarette on the crispy dry red cedar log that marks the parking area. A nice on-shore breeze fanned the embers and it spread into the log.

Right beside the log is a metal can for disposing of cigarette butts. On the other side of the log is a quarter acre of dry grass. Downwind of the log are really dry scrubby beach shrubs and four homes. When I visited the site today I found 6-8 cigarette butts that looked less than a week old in the grass.

Little Trib beach access is highways land and it is legal to smoke there. However, those logs at the edge of the parking lot border on very dry and flammable private land. Please, if you use that log for a get-together or for just enjoying the view use the metal can for your butts.  Perhaps consider moving down onto the gravel beach when smoking.  That way if an ember falls onto the ground it won’t light up the dry grass.

Also please let others, who may not be following social media, know the importance of being safe with cigarettes.

Effective noon on July 30 we are implementing restrictions on high risk activities. These activities include chainsaw usage, lawn mowing, brush cutting with metal blades, and land clearing. Nylon string weed trimmers are allowed as they are unlikely to create a spark.

For more information on which activities are allowed and which are restricted please refer to the Wildfire BC page.

If you witness someone engaging in one of the risky activities you can call the Fire Patrol cell phone at 250.703.1792 or the Fire Hall at 250.335.2611. If you choose to inform the operator yourself please be kind. They may not be aware of the restrictions.  Entering into a confrontation benefits no one.

Here is what is likely the last update on the fire hall construction. Included is an update on the Superiour Tanker Shuttle Accreditation and the end-of-project financial wrap-up. Click on the image for a pdf.

After a ton of hard work and long hours of studying, Duncan MacCaskill and Rob Lewis have been promoted from Rookie to Firefighter. Duncan returned to us this year after a lengthy absence and Rob joined our department almost two years ago.

The test to be promoted has a multi hour practical component and  a 40 question written test. They both demonstrated an outstanding commitment to their training, to the betterment of our department, and to the health and safety of our community.

Congratulations Rob and Duncan!