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.

Fire Prevention Officers’ Association of BC   News Release

  December 21, 2014

 Fire Prevention Week Contest Prize Winner – Hornby Island

 The annual Fire Prevention Week contest has expanded to include a prize winner in each of the five geographic zones of the province.  Primary students were visited by firefighters before Fire Prevention Week, October 5 – 11, and given entry forms to enter into a contest after some fire safety activities were completed at home with their families.  The contest winner would receive an iPad.

 The five iPads are jointly sponsored by the Office of the Fire Commissioner, the BC Fire Chiefs’ Association, the Fire Training Officers’ Association of BC, the Fire Prevention Officers’ Association of BC and Fortis BC.  “Working together we have been able to make the contest more meaningful across the province.  Each zone will have its own winner instead of one winner for all of BC” said Timo Juurakko, Chair of the Public Education Committee for the FPOABC. “Hopefully more families became engaged in fire prevention activities, which was the goal of the project.”

 We are excited to announce that the winner for zone #1 (Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast) is from Hornby Island Community School.  Sophie Chapman was presented with her iPad on Wednesday, December 17^th.

 The take home activities that all children completed prompted attention to working smoke alarms and home escape planning with the entire family.  Remember, only working smoke alarms will notify you of a fire emergency and knowing what to do when the alarm sounds is crucial to your family being safe.

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

Preliminary Design OPEN HOUSE

Sunday, July 20th – 2:00-5:30 pm and Monday, July 21st – 7:00-9:30 pm at New Horizons

Please attend to review and provide feedback on the preliminary design and cost estimate of the proposed new fire hall. Stay informed through our website located at

http://www.comoxvalleyrd.ca/hornbyislandfirehall

Contact Tor Nawrot at tor@hifd.org or 250-335-2214

for more information in the latest Newsletter:

July 2014 Newsletter

At 8:10 on the evening of Sunday, May 25, we received a page for a structure fire at 5205 Fowler Road. Fire Dispatch then confirmed that this was the Sea Breeze Lodge. The staff member who called 911 reported that he thought everyone was out of the building and when asked where the fire was, he apparently replied: “Overhead!”. He was told to get out.

The Duty Officer arrived on scene at 8:16 and reported that the front of the building was on fire as well as 3 cars. Engine 61 arrived at 8:20 and started protecting the exposed building on the east side, which was fortunately on the windward side of the fire. This video taken by Karun Koernig, one of the guests, shows the Engine arriving and the extent of the fire upon arrival.

The speed of the fire spread surprised everyone. Guests and staff had noticed what appeared at first to be fog, drifting by the windows as dinner was being served. Rudy, working in the kitchen, also noticed this and went to look out the door into the storage area and saw flames rolling inside the open storage area. He then alerted everyone that there was a fire and to evacuate the building. Many guests, unaware of the severity of the fire took their delicious duck dinner and wine outside to wait until they could re-enter the dining room. When they turned around to look they could see that the front third of the lodge was on fire.

Volunteer firefighters worked until 2:30 in the morning, putting out hotspots as best as possible but had to leave some still smoldering due to the piles of debris laying under metal roofing. Back at the fire hall everything had to be put back into operational readiness which took another hour and a half. 11 firefighters, 3 rookies and 2 auxiliaries took part in the incident.

Investigation of the fire involved 2 of our Local Assistants to the Fire Commissioner with the expert assistance of a forensic investigator from Richmond. The fire appeared to originate in the vicinity of the battery charger and spare battery used for the house keeping electric golf cart which was kept in the open storage area at the front of the lodge.

 

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.