HAYES CREEK FIRE STATION #291
2014 DECEMBER NEWSLETTER
Greetings of the Season to you and your loved ones from The Hayes Creek
Firefighters/Medical First Responders.
2014 has been an average year for emergency calls answered by your fire department
with 27 calls as follows:
 16 medical calls,
 2 floods with sandbagging by our members,
 2 MVA’s with injuries,
 2 power lines down with trees burning,
 1 chimney fire,
 3 separate cougar attacks with 1 injury.
The kitchen was finished this year and the new training/community space has been used
every Wednesday for training and often for potlucks, community meetings and functions.
The construction and completion of this wonderful community and training addition was
made possible by grants from The Forestry Corporation, Osprey Lake Ratepayers, Chain
Lake Properties, Roger Rand, Susie Grizer, Ken Paul, Alan Holmgren, and of course the
“Team” that volunteered and worked for 7 weeks, some of it seven days a week.
We were fortunate to have tireless support and encouragement from Area H director Brad
Hope who recognized our good work for the entire community and did everything he
could to help us in so many ways. We are very sorry to hear that he is retiring as director
of Area H at the end of this year. We attended a retirement party for him and his wife
June at the Erris fire hall on November 8th. He will be greatly missed and we all wish
him a happy retirement. Thank you, Brad. The results of the past election has provided
us with a very responsible replacement for Brad namely Bob Coyne, we welcome him
and will be grateful for any help he can give us during his time in office.
We have lobbied for infrastructure funds from The Forestry Corporation through RDOS
and the town of Princeton for $25,000.00 for the spring of 2015. We already have
$20,000.00 in the bank from The Forestry Corporation for 2014. This will allow us to
proceed with the “Bob McMurtrie” addition to give us inside parking for the Medical
First Responder unit, a workshop and a much needed warm inside area to sort your kind
donations of bottles and cans. It will also give us a 24’ by 30’ covered deck.
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Together we have achieved so very much in the past year and 2015 looks to also be full
of accomplishments by the “Team”.
Our old very serviceable 1976 Ford engine was given to our neighbour Erris Fire
Department. They will have a working fire truck for the first time this winter. We
replaced it with a 1994 Ford F450 4-wheel drive CAAF engine.
We now have a full set of “jaws” thank you to Deputy Chief Brent Fraser and his
contacts from his time as training officer in the West Kelowna Fire Department. Our first
“Jaws” practise was on a car donated by Bob McMurtrie (thanks Bob). If you have a
vehicle you wish to donate to have “parted out” give one of our members a call.
This forest fire season was very exciting and stressful here with a large rapid moving
forest fire spreading towards us. We were on a 2-hour evacuation alert for 5 days and did
evacuate the campsites at Osprey, Link, and Chain lakes.
The only good part of this is we now have a community emergency plan in place to
notify and provide accountability for residents. It is to be noted here that wild fires burn
and spread 2.7 times faster in pine beetle killed forests, versus green and healthy forests.
Logging these diseased areas is a much better option. Of real concern for extreme fire
hazards for next spring are the properties with large fuel loads of long dry dead grass.
Please trim and remove. The first house to be lost could be yours.
There have been concerns over speeding logging trucks going through our community
and we did respond to one such over turned truck. Local resident Greg Tellier has been
meeting with forest companies and highway departments to address this concern and
install speed limit and directional signs on corners.
Your yearly fire dues remain at $50.00, but donations are always welcome and are put to
community good. As of this year, we have stopped issuing paper receipts - your
cancelled cheque will be your receipt, unless you pay by cash or specifically request one,
just contact Gail at 250-295-6898 or email her at [email protected] .
We would to like to thank Gail and Stan for donating their time and property to our
Summer Garage Sale. These monies are used for supplies and equipment.
Our insurance costs for building, trucks and directors are $6,600 annually. This is very
large part of what it takes to keep our doors open.
Fire suppression is an important service we provide but medical response is used much
more. From the 911 call, to the arrival of an ambulance in our area, is on average just
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under an hour. Rapid response of Hayes Creek members with oxygen therapy units, EHS
crash medical bags, a defibulator and rescue equipment can and does significantly
contribute to a “Happy Ending”. It is the most important service we provide (insurance
will build you a new house but not your life).
Once again Hayes Creek Firefighters will sponsor the December 24th Santa Ride and the
Christmas Hay rides. If you will have children under 12 at your house this year and
would like a visit from Santa and his elves, please email [email protected] or call
Susie at 250-295-0774 or Ruth at 250-295-6660 and give them them your local address
and the names, ages and gender of each child. As Santa is hard pressed this time of year
to “make” these gifts and get them wrapped, please call Susie or Ruth as soon as possible.
Thanks to all who have donated or left us their refundables through the year.
We wish all of you a safe and joyous Christmas season.
CONTACT NUMBERS
Rob Miller/Chief
Brent Fraser/Deputy Chief
250-295-6420
250-295-0170
Gail Dickson/ Secretary
250-295-6898
2015 Dues of $50/property are now due! Please mail to:
HAYES CREEK VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTERS ASSOC.
RR#1 S14 C23
PRINCETON, BC. V0X 1W0
NAME:_________________________________________________________________
E-MAIL_________________________________________________________________
MAILING ADDRESS:_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
PROPERTY ADDRESS:__________________________________________________
LOCAL PHONE NUMBER_________________________________________________
HOME PHONE NUMBER_________________________________________________
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