2017 was another busy year for the Quesnel Volunteer Fire Department with a total of 440 callouts, including 224 group pages (all members notified) and 196 officer pages (only officers notified).
Quesnel has a full complement of volunteers who provided 6,300 hours of service in 2017.
Quesnel fire chief Sylvain Gauthier says when you divide the number of volunteers by the various responses, each member is supplying a significant number of hours.
“They show dedication and they’re all fully trained responders.”
The Quesnel Fire Department saw a small increase in the number of callouts last year, with 22 confirmed fires including structures, vehicles, garbage cans, dumpsters and other smaller fires.
There were two significant fires: one at Cariboo Pulp and Paper, and one at Pace Setter Mill near the landfill, Gauthier explains.
“The fire near the landfill was during the wildfire season and there was considerable concern about the fire spreading to the nearby forest.
“The BC Forest Service responded to this fire as well to prevent an interface fire.”
He adds that 22 volunteers from the Quesnel Fire Department took part in the wildfire season deployment and served over a period of 37 days, primarily for structure protection and structural fire responses in the communities of Clinton, 100 Mile House, 108 Mile, Miocene, Williams Lake and Anaheim Lake.
“2017 was a busy year and we expect about the same for 2018,” Gauthier says.
