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Firefighters strengthen communities

Volunteer firefighters up and down the Coast deserve recognition year-round, and this week especially, for the tireless work they put in during the new year's windstorm's power outages.

Volunteer firefighters up and down the Coast deserve recognition year-round, and this week especially, for the tireless work they put in during the new year's windstorm's power outages.

Firefighters were responding to calls at all hours of the day, despite the fact it was a holiday and that the weather conditions were wet and cold. Instead of being at home relaxing by the fire with their families, they were stuck out in trucks and on roads tending to fallen power lines and trees.

Even before the power outages happened Sunday afternoon, the Sechelt department's day began at 5:30 in the morning when a call came in of a fire on the deck of the Beach Buoy restaurant. The first volunteer arrived from home in nine minutes, followed by 18 more volunteers. The crack of dawn on new year's day is not an ideal time to be working, especially without pay, let alone time and a half, but they did it just the same. Then instead of heading to bed early that night, they were out all afternoon and night helping to prevent people from getting electrocuted by fallen power lines. Jan. 2 was a similar story with calls coming in for service from all over town.

Sechelt fire chief Bill Higgs tells me most of the volunteers are sick now from exhaustion, lack of sleep and working in cold, wet conditions. But I bet they would still jump out of bed at the next storm.

The Pender Harbour volunteer fire department was also out on the roads working tirelessly around the clock. After working all afternoon and evening Sunday, another call came in at 3:30 in the morning Monday. There were about a dozen local volunteers helping out around the area, according to their chief Don Murray.

Recruiting volunteers must be a difficult task because it takes time away from paid work and personal time, but there seems to be an exceptional bunch of crews in every area of the Coast. And as I've seen from my past visits to the Pender Harbour and Howe Sound Pulp and Paper volunteer fire departments, they have fun doing it. There is a real camaraderie there. Maybe it's the little boys in them that enjoy riding in fire trucks or it could be the bringing together of people in the community for fire practice that makes them such a good group. Coast communities are fortunate to have such a valuable service at minimal costs.

The BC Hydro crews also deserve credit for getting power up and running in homes and businesses as quickly as they could and for recognizing the need to ask for help from Vancouver crews. They're ready for the next storm, which has been threatening to strike again throughout the week.