Practice near Co-Op tonight

Just a heads up that we will practicing our fire plan at Elder Housing tonight (Thurs, Oct 19). We will be connecting to the Co-Op water tanks via the standpipe near the Gas Bar entrance and will have hose lines laid across the road. The road won’t be closed but there will be someone to help cars safely cross our hose lines.

We will be there from 7:45PM to about 9:00PM. Please be extra careful around that intersection. It may be dark and rainy and there will be several fire fighters working on or beside the road.

New Tanker/Tender Truck Almost Complete

The brand new HIFR truck #66 is soon on its way. The black back is a 2000 gallon plastic water tank.

Rob Zielinski and I had a virtual tour of the new Hornby Island Fire Rescue tender. It is almost complete and is on track to be delivered in a week or two. We did a video conference with the folks at Fort Garry Fire Trucks at their factory in Winnipeg where they wandered around the truck with an iPhone showing us some of the features.

They will be sending a driver/trainer to drive the rig to Hornby Island and spend a day training us on its components. We’ll start using it in our training sessions before the end of September in the hopes of challenging the Superior Tanker Shuttle Accreditation test in the spring.

Water Ball

Hi everyone,
A tank of ours has sprung a leak and needs to be patched so rather than draining the water in the ditch we are going to be doing a fun team building exercise. One that dates all the way back to 1958 here in the Comox valley.

Water Ball!

So if you want to come see some folks get wet or if you want to try your hand at running a fire hose come on out to the ball park this Thursday August 31st at 7:30pm and cheer on those brave and soggy souls that take up the call.


Quana Parker
Deputy / Training Officer
Hornby Island Fire Rescue

Two Hornby Firefighters Heading to BC Hot Spot

HIFR is proud to be able to send two of our senior firefighters to help with structure protection in the wildfire events in the BC interior. Quana Parker and Sasha LeBaron will be serving as part of a structure protection unit staffed by our friends at Oyster River Fire Rescue and commanded by Chief Bruce Green. They will be leaving on Tuesday and will be staged out of 150 Mile House for their seven-day tour.

This is an exciting opportunity for our two fire fighters to gain valuable wild land fire management experience in a live incident environment. We are looking forward to the stories, skills, and knowledge that they will bring back and share with the rest of the department. With no respite in the weather forecast there is a good chance that two more Hornby firefighters may get the nod for a future tour to the interior.

Join us in wishing Sasha and Quana the best of luck in their deployment. Thank you for answering the call. You are making us proud.

Near Misses and Good Saves

HIFR has been pretty busy over the last few weeks. Despite the extreme fire hazard and the hundreds of fires elsewhere in the province, all of our calls have been medical. That doesn’t mean that we can let our guard down, though. I’ve heard of three recent local incidents that could have resulted in a fairly large scale response.

  • Around the time that the fire hazard went to extreme, I got a call from a resident whose chainsaw exhaust set fire to the log he was bucking up. He had water standing by and was able to extinguish it himself, but the event was an eye-opener into how easily things catch on fire in these conditions.
  • An HIFR member was driving by another resident’s workshop when he smelled smoke. As he was investigating, flames began licking out of the floorboards of the shop. The fire was most likely caused by a blob of hot steel that came from a welding job over an hour earlier. He was able to put out the fire with an extinguisher and saved the shop before any significant damage occurred and before the fire spread to the nearby forest.
  • A BC Hydro employee who happens to be a volunteer with Chemainus Fire was following another vehicle along a Hornby driveway with tall grass down the center. The exhaust system of the car ahead of her lit the tall grass on fire without the driver noticing. Our volunteer was carrying a fire extinguisher in her vehicle and was able to put out the grass fire before it spread to the field beside the driveway.

Here are some takeaways from those events:

  • Be vigilant
  • Carry an extinguisher
  • Avoid using chainsaws or other high fire-risk tools
  • Keep the driveway grass short (use a nylon string trimer)

Fire Hazard now at Extreme

The danger class went to EXTREME this afternoon.

HIFR is asking people to please refrain from using chainsaws and other small engines that have potential for generating sparks.

Professional fallers and other forestry professionals are exempt from this as they are covered under the forestry act. They are required, however,  to do a thorough assessment of the conditions, establish a fire suppression system, and may be responsible for any damages caused by a fire that they start.