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The weather was perfect and the crowd was huge for this year’s polar bear swim. About 80 swimmers took to the water and a crowd of over 250 enjoyed hotdogs and hot chai, compliments of HIFR.

Just before 4:oopm on Labour Day, we received a call for a mountain bike accident on No Horses trail near Strachan Road. Fortunately our recent locum, Doctor Nick Bartell was also on the trail and came on scene and provided initial care while alerting 911 and the nature of the injuries. We arrived and after ‘packaging’ for spinal immobilization we transported the patient to the landing strip and the waiting BCAS medical crew and helicopter.

We get 4 or 5 such helicopter evacuations each year and Gregg happened to spot a good photo on this occasion:

At the beginning of August, Rookies Bailey Gordon and Scott Towson, completed their firefighter practical evaluation testing and written knowledge test.

Congratulations to our new Firefighters Bailey and Scott for their dedication to training and serving our community.

Have you thought about joining us? We are looking for new recruits and have this Question and Answer page of some initial questions you may have.

Talk to a firefighter or come out on a Thursday night at 7:30

Q&A for recruits

Congratulations to Quana Parker, who recently moved from the ranks of “rookie” to full fledged firefighter by passing his in-house proficiency test.  The test ran him through all of the things that are unique to our department like the water tank network, our portable pumps, where we keep things on our trucks, and our specialized procedures. It is a 6 hour test and he crushed it.

Quana was a member of the department 15 years ago before he moved to Vancouver. We’re thrilled to have him back. Congratulations Q.

We just witnessed an incredible demonstration of democracy in action and community pride. After what seemed like an endless parade of flyers, voters turned out in record numbers to support our plan for the future.

Locals had smiles on their faces as they went to vote! A really positive event.

It was truly amazing to keep running into friends who own property here but don’t live here. They had come to vote. Wow!

Thank you everyone. Thank you everyone who voted, whether yes or no. Thank you for making the effort to make your vote count.

We are excited for the future.

Following the count at Saturday’s assent voting for the Hornby Island fire hall borrowing bylaw, the unofficial results are as follows:
YES – 623 (83{99e9ada67dac39a50d0f689a42cd9e161cfeac89d8ef38f636e75bc823e6d3b2})
NO – 126 (17{99e9ada67dac39a50d0f689a42cd9e161cfeac89d8ef38f636e75bc823e6d3b2})

A chief election official’s review will be conducted early next week and the official results will be announced before Wednesday, April 22, 2015 at 4:30

The 2014 Annual Report is available here: HIFR Annual Report 2014

with earlier reports available on the Public Documents page

For a few years we have been implementing a plan to get “hydrant protected” status for all residential properties on Hornby. We are getting close and the proposed new fire hall is an important piece in that puzzle. Here is our letter to the community explaining that in a bit more detail.

We don’t have fire hydrants on Hornby but there is a certification that rural fire departments can get that says that they can deliver enough water with their trucks to be equivalent to a hydrant. That can mean big savings on residential insurance.

We’ve heard that some residents have had some problems getting their insurance brokers to commit to offering discounts when we achieve our goal. Here are letters from two Vancouver Island insurance companies showing significant savings.                          

 

Some think that it’s unrealistic that a small rural department can achieve this certification. This is a letter from Rick Jackson, Fire Chief for Gabriola Island, outlining what they have done to successfully achieve their accreditation. Errington Fire Rescue has also successfully gone through this process.

But does any of this really make a difference for the property owners who are paying insurance premiums? To the left is a letter from someone familiar to many Hornby Islanders. Dr. Bob Henderson was one of our doctors for many years. He has a house on Gabriola where they have been able to get “hydrant protection” for their residents and property owners.

We’ve spent years putting together the infrastructure necessary and we are confident that we can achieve this milestone. What is missing is the truck that we need to deliver the water. We have the money to buy the truck. We have the water tanks in place for distributing our water sources. We need a heated, dry, lockable space attached to the firehall in which to store the truck. That’s where the new firehall comes in. Please help us save you money by voting YES on April 18.