You may notice a strange fire truck driving around and wonder why the Parksville Fire Department has suddenly taken to providing fire protection to our Island.
The series of events started when we discovered two corrosion holes in the suction manifold of the pump on our own Engine 61. This 6” steel pipe is the inlet into the 1,050gpm pump on our Engine and needed emergency welding repair, which was completed by Captain Rob Zielinski the next day. We quickly confirmed that the plumbing on our 2004 Engine was still under warranty from Hub Fire Engines in Abbotsford. The difficulty was that the truck needed to be taken to their facility in Abbotsford and would have to be out of service for a couple of weeks.
Our community must have a certified front line Engine in order to maintain insurance coverage as required by the Fire Underwriters and you can’t just take the Engine away for a couple of weeks. Fire Chief Giff La Rose sent out a request to all the fire departments in BC and received offers of assistance from Prince Rupert, Sechelt, Oak Bay and Parksville. The Parksville Volunteer Fire Department, lead by Fire Chief Doug Banks, generously offered one of their front line apparatus, Engine 41, to provide the temporary coverage to protect Hornby Island.
The Engine came complete with all the equipment required for our operations; we installed our own Draeger Self Contained Breathing Apparatus. Our members spent an evening becoming familiar with the location of all the equipment and removing the gear off our Engine 61 in preparation for its trip.
We are very grateful to the citizens of Parksville and their Volunteer Fire Department.