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At this year’s Christmas Party, the first in our new fire hall, we gave out some awards.

Iain Palmer received his 30 year service bar to fasten to his 25 year medal. The award comes with a certificate signed by the Governor General of Canada. While accepting his award Iain described what the old fire hall was like when he joined. At that point it consisted of only the radio room and the first two truck bays. All of the 15 members would be huddled around the room, crammed into corners for their meetings. Many thanks to Iain for his many years of service to the Hornby Island community.

Each year we give out an award to those members who attend 50 or more calls in a year. This year is our biggest year to date and six members got (or will get) awards this year:

• Doug Chinnery with 122 calls
• John Heinegg with 82 calls
• Quana Parker with 73 calls
• Paula Courteau with 55 calls
• Rob Lewis with 52 calls
• Ian Emberton with 51 calls

Since the Christmas party we did a call at midnight on Christmas Eve and another one on Christmas morning. Ian Emberton attended both of those calls and as a result was a late entry into the “Club of 50”.

Thank you to all members of HIFR and the families who support us and tolerate our late night and Christmas day calls. Thanks, also for the immense amount of love and support that we receive from the community. It’s why we do it.

Merry Christmas to all!

It has been 20 years since the HIFR and the community first began talks about renewing the fire hall, five years since we settled on the rebuild plan, and almost two years since the ground was broken for the the new building.  Last week all of the deficiencies were fixed and we started the move across the street.

The trucks and the bunker gear were the first items moved, followed by the kitchen, living space furniture, and first aid supplies. At that point we began responding to the new fire hall for all calls.

The following week we moved the work bench, air cylinder fill station, and laundry facilities. There is still the contents of the storage shed, a few boxes of ancient files, some books, and miscellaneous items to move over. That will all happen over the next few weeks.

Everyone has worked hard to make this move happen but Rob Zielinski and Ian Emberton have put in an incredible amount of time to get all of our systems up and running. Without their dedication we would still be weeks away from where we are now.

 

Here is the latest official update with help from the communications folks at the CVRD. Click on the image for an easier to read PDF.

This is an excellent opportunity for High School aged young adults to get a tonne of great training without having to leave the island. They’ll come out of it with a Search and Rescue Certification from the Justice Institute, a St John’s Ambulance First Aid certificate, and six high school credits.

Registration opens for high school search-and-rescue training academy

Here is the latest. The epoxy top coat has slipped a day but the Thursday move-in date is still a very achievable target.

If you have a Kidde fire extinguisher with a plastic handle please check it against this recall notice.

Hornby Island Fire Rescue is thrilled to present Halloween fireworks on Tues, October 31 at 8PM sharp. The show will be at Outer Island Farm on the corner of DePape and Porpoise.

The best place to see the show will be at the water tank on DePape road. Please avoid driving on DePape between Porpoise and Jerow as there will be many people and kids in costume milling about. There is lots of parking at the side of the road on Porpoise and Seawright.

Big thanks to Jed and Karen Young and Jim and Pauline Garton for offering the use of their field for the display.

Just a heads up that we will practicing our fire plan at Elder Housing tonight (Thurs, Oct 19). We will be connecting to the Co-Op water tanks via the standpipe near the Gas Bar entrance and will have hose lines laid across the road. The road won’t be closed but there will be someone to help cars safely cross our hose lines.

We will be there from 7:45PM to about 9:00PM. Please be extra careful around that intersection. It may be dark and rainy and there will be several fire fighters working on or beside the road.

Here is the latest update for the new fire hall.

Rob Zielinski and I had a virtual tour of the new Hornby Island Fire Rescue tender. It is almost complete and is on track to be delivered in a week or two. We did a video conference with the folks at Fort Garry Fire Trucks at their factory in Winnipeg where they wandered around the truck with an iPhone showing us some of the features.

They will be sending a driver/trainer to drive the rig to Hornby Island and spend a day training us on its components. We’ll start using it in our training sessions before the end of September in the hopes of challenging the Superior Tanker Shuttle Accreditation test in the spring.

In the interests of improving first aid awareness everywhere, HIFR is happy to spread the word about an upcoming public first aid course put on by the Hornby Island Education Society. Click the poster for more information.