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Hawkins Lake VFA fights fires in remote area of South Cariboo

The Hawkins Lake Volunteer Fire Association is one of the Cariboo's few independent fire halls
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Members of the Hawkins Lake Volunteer Fire Association pose for a photo at the Hawkins Lake Fire Hall at Sellars Road with a new fire truck acquired from Sasamat Fire Department. (Photo submitted by Ian Davis of Hawkins Lake Volunteer Fire Association)

The Hawkins Lake Volunteer Fire Association (HLVFA) has been fighting fires in and around their community since 1989. 

The community of Hawkins Lake is located around 41km northwest of 100 Mile House, close to Eagle Creek and Canim Lake. Unlike many of the region's volunteer fire departments, the HLVFA is completely independent of the Cariboo Regional District. 

"We just sort of essentially are a group that is all trying to limit and mitigate surprises when they happen,"  Ian Davis, the fire chief of the HLVFA, said. 

According to Teri Sobo, president of the HLVFA's board of directors, the HLVFA was founded in 1989 and is registered under the B.C. Societies Act. Initially, they had around 40 volunteers, some of them part-time. 

Today they have 27 volunteer firefighters and four fire trucks, the newest of which is from 1997. 

This year has been a "particularly quiet season" for the Hawkins Lake VFA, according to Davis. He says that only two fires have had to be reported to the Fire Commissioner's Office this year as well as a vehicle fire in January that started from a block heater being plugged in. 

"We had one fire just before the summer fire season got going again - it was a rogue wind that spread a mill scraps pile from a local micro mill," Davis said. That fire was put out before it had become a major one, Davis explained. 

The volunteer fire association, however, are unable to respond to all fires: for instance, they cannot respond to any sort of fires that start in the interior of someone's home. According to Davis, this is because some of the members are in their 60s or 70s, if not older, and there are liability issues. 

"It's a training and equipment issue, and also to get those types of certifications and to qualify and get funding from the Cariboo Regional District (CRD) to fund this type of training and equipment, you need to do that kind of stuff. It takes a huge investment and it's a smallish pool of properties and constituency that we serve," Davis explained.

The fire association does not get any funding from the CRD, which funds most of the volunteer fire departments across the Cariboo. Instead, the HLVFA receives funding through member dues, proceeds from a recycling program, charitable donations, and a summer picnic.

All told they bring in an estimated $30,000 per year. This is a surplus considering that the cost to operate the volunteer fire association is "probably $15,000 to $18,000 a year," according to Davis. 

Despite this, the department still has expenses and projects to undertake including purchasing a new tanker truck from a local fire department and general upgrades to their fire hall they are hoping to complete within the next year. 

Other challenges they've had to mitigate include limitations on communication. Between Eagle Creek Road and Canim-Hendrix Lake Road, several hills create physical barriers that prevent reliable radio communication. According to Sabo, this once led to the RCMP using a neighbour's landline when they attended to a vehicle accident in 2016.

After this incident, the Hawkins Lake VFA took advantage of one of the hills to install a tower and mount a repeater station on it in late 2016 to early 2017. 

"We were granted our own frequency and this allows the crew to communicate throughout the Zone using handheld radios," stated Sabo in an e-mail to the 100 Mile Free Press. Since then, the VFA now has two radios dedicated to reaching provincial emergency services.

Those who want to join the Hawkins Lake VFA are asked to come check them out at their weekly practices on Monday at 10 a.m. at their fire hall located in Hawkins Lake at 3554 Sellars Road, with the postal address Box 36, Eagle Creek, V0K 1L0. The only practical requirement Davis said, is that they have to live in the Hawkins Lake area. 



About the Author: Misha Mustaqeem

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