The Fauquier Volunteer Fire Brigade has had another busy and successful year. In June, we had one relatively minor callout when a hydro transformer in town took a direct hit from a lightning strike. We were easily able to suppress the resulting fire.
On the personnel side, we have had four new recruits since last fall. We extend a warm welcome to Syd Welch, Bud Cope, Derek Shiell and Beverley Darnell…it’s good to have you all as teammates. This brings our total strength to twelve.
We have acquired two major pieces of equipment in the past year – a breathing air compressor and a new auxiliary trailer. The purchase of the compressor was made possible by the generous support of BC Hydro and RDCK Area K Director Paul Peterson. Sincere thanks to both.
It has revolutionized our self-contained breathing apparatus training and ensures an unlimited supply of breathing air in case of an emergency. The trailer, which we have dubbed “The Fire Wagon” was constructed by local craftsman Don Hallam who charged us for materials only. Thanks, Don!
Training continues to be our number one focus. At the beginning of May, Syd Welch and Chief John Banta attended the annual spring seminar in Grand Forks and at the beginning of June Chief Banta was off to the BC Fire Training Officers conference in Abbotsford.
Our weekly Tuesday night practices constitute the backbone of our training program and the four new recruits also attend one hour basic training sessions on Monday morning. We hope to have that program wrapped up with four more fully trained basic firefighters by the end of the year.
We also found time to organize and run two fund raising dinners in January and April.
The first was to support Gareth Douglas in his competitive snowboarding endeavours and the second was to provide sponsorship to Kiera McLean’s participation in the Arrow Lakes Ambassador Program as Miss Fauquier Volunteer Fire Brigade. We were all very proud of her. In addition, we operated the lunch barbeque at the community Canada Day celebrations.
Proud of our past and confident in our future, we continue to strive to live up to our motto – “Semper Paratus” – “Always Ready”.