By David F. Rooney
Revelstoke’s Fire Rescue Service is seeking a few good men and women who want to make a difference in our community.
Firefighters are in the forefront of ensuring public safety by fulfilling their main role as well as by acting as first responders during medical emergencies.
“We’re looking for good, sensible, caring individuals,” Fire Chief Rob Girard said in a recent interview.
It goes without saying that if you want to be a firefighter you also have to be in good health and physically fit. There are a number of tests and interviews ahead of every applicant followed by fitness testing, some of it involving equipment like the hoses, ladders, axes and what not – even the dummy victim trotted out for exercises.
The Fire Rescue Service currently has 31 volunteers and eight professional firefighters, including the chief. It needs nine more volunteers, all of whom must be capable of working within a team framework.
“Teamwork starts with Day One,” Girard said, adding that the ability to work together is important because “what affects one of us, affects all.”
Our city’s firefighters practice every Wednesday and are fortunate to now have a facility in the Industrial Park where they can train under fairly realistic live-fire circumstances. That training ground is occasionally rented out to other fire departments in our region.
No one is going to get rich as a volunteer. As a group, the volunteers receive $3,000 a month and they get to decide what to do with it. The real rewards are the respect and regard they receive from their fellow Revelstokians.
Being a volunteer firefighter matters.
Please click here for more information. Or drop by the station house at 227 Fourth Street West and fill out an application.
