The 100 Mile House Fire Rescue Department is looking for at least six new people, says 100 Mile House Fire Chief Roger Hollander.
They’re having an information session on Feb. 15 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the 100 Mile House fire hall.
They average a couple of calls per day but the expectation to show up has always been a certain standard as dictated by operational guidelines.
“We recognize obviously that it’s a paid on call department so we always say family is first and then your full-time work is second and the fire department is third in priority. After the family and work is taken care of if there’s room for us that’s where we come in.”
There’s a minimum but more time could be put in but that will all be explained at the information session, says Hollander.
Selected applicants will have to do agility testing, including a minimal physical test that replicates typical firefighting duties such as pulling and dragging and going up stairs and lifting small tools, power equipment, deploying ladders those types of things. Then there’s an application review after that agility testing, followed by interviews and final selection, says Hollander.
“We never know who’s gonna come. We do have a few applications right now in our possessions but the more people come the better. That would be fantastic, men women. We just want people to come in and see what we do.”
A lot of the time people are unaware of how difficult or how not difficult it is, he says.
“A lot of people that I speak to after they get in realize that ‘oh, I should have done this a long time ago’ and that’s something that we want people to realize up front. All these firefighters that are here currently in our department are your neighbours and relatives and live very close by. So anybody can participate or at least come to the information session and see what we do.”
While they accept applications throughout the year, they only bring people in during the month of February, he says.
“So it’s important that if someone was thinking of wanting to join our department, they need to come to that information session and they need to apply within the month of February.”
Last year, five new firefighters joined the 100 Mile House Fire Rescue team, finishing up their training in mid-June.
“I’ve been really impressed since day one with the way I was included in the hall and the sense of teamwork, and also the sense of responsibility and in the aspect of training — that we try to be as safe and professional as possible. The level of professionalism really surprised me,” said new recruit Ryan Dugaro at the time.