Council unanimously approved the Lake Cowichan Fire Department incident report for July, the total expenses for which were $12,583.02.
“Just for clarification on the Lake Cowichan Fire Department incident report for July, that was to deal with some extra service for the Sunfest weekend to ensure that the residents were covered. That’s why it seems a little bit high,” said councillor Tim McGonigle who is also chairman of the finance and administration committee.
The Sunfest-related expenses included six Laketown Ranch duty crews from July 29-31 of six firefighters at a cost of approximately $680 per crew.
“It’s not always $12,000 per month for the fire department incident report. That would be why it was so high this year, “ said McGonigle.
However, the fire expenses for July 2015 were $12,894.85. Some of the more costly incidents that month include a structure fire on MacDonald Road ($1,477.92), a fire in Duncan that Lake Cowichan responded to as mutual aide ($1,875.20) and a brush fire on Highway 18 ($2,456.28).
One-third of all fire costs and capital expenditures are covered by the CVRD. Parts of Areas F and I are covered by the Lake Cowichan Fire Department through mutual service agreements.
