When accidents, fires, and other tragedies strike, police, paramedics, and firefighters get the call.
In our area, a lot of those firefighters are volunteers – and the job they have is huge and varied.
The area is big, the terrain can be rock, but when an emergency happens in Georgian Bay, the volunteer fire department gets the call.
“There have been places when we've had to drive, we've had to boat and we've had to walk,” says Georgian Bay Fire Chief Jim Boswell. “We've had to portage an aluminum boat to get to places. Every day is unique.”
Boswell and his crew respond to emergencies in a 550-square-kilometre radius. Last weekend, they responded to a fatal boat crash and the next day a plane crash, both on Six Mile Lake. But they're not just on the water.
“We respond to emergencies on 51 kilometres of Highway 400 so our fire fighters have to be trained in vehicle extraction, first aid and of course structure fires,” Boswell says.
And they aren't your typical structure fires. Most cottages are only accessible by water, so the township has three boats to get around.
“This one is equipped with a pump too, where water is brought through the pumps so once we get there we just plug in and go.”
The fire department also gets some help from the residents who keep pumps on their dock.
“We've got about 90 of these throughout the township and they are used by residents to get a head-start on the fire,” Boswell says.
Another issue the all-volunteer fire department has to deal with is keeping employment in the area. So when businesses like the Delawana Inn close, it makes finding and recruiting volunteer fire fighters that much more difficult.
“When our economy goes down, people often move onto other jobs in the cities with hours like 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. so it's a real challenge,” says firefighter Aaron Lalonde.
And it's a big job for volunteers. They're on call 24-7. The training is intensive, with 100 hours before you set foot on a truck. But for volunteers like Lalonde, it's all worth it.
They just wish more people would get involved.
The Georgian Bay Fire Department will start recruiting this fall to have firefighters ready to respond this spring.
