About 350 volunteer firefighters from all over B.C., including Osoyoos, participated in a training session on Sunday in Oliver. The Volunteer Firefighter Shut-Up & Train spring training session is held every second year in Oliver. Although some professionals were involved in teaching, all the participants were volunteer firefighters. Pictured here, Naramata firefighters use Class B foam to smother a fire without the use of water. (Keith Lacey photo)
Town of Oliver Fire Chief Dan Skaros was beaming with a broad smile as his department did another fantastic job in hosting the British Columbia Volunteer Firefighters Shut-Up and Train Spring Training Seminar this past weekend.
More than 350 volunteer firefighters from across the province gathered at the Oliver Community Park to participate in the annual event.
For more than 30 years, the Town of Oliver Volunteer Fire Department has hosted the annual event pretty much every second year – volunteer fire departments from across the province make bids to host the event on the years it isn’t held in Oliver.
The event is all about sharing information on the latest techniques used to fight fire and allow volunteer firefighters to test and show off their skills in simulated training sessions spread out over two days, said Skaros.
“It’s a real honour for the volunteers with our department to be able to host this event every second year,” said Skaros, who has been the fire chief in Oliver for seven years and been a volunteer firefighter for more than 32 years. “It takes a lot of time and effort to organize this event, but our members don’t mind putting in all the hard work because we always run a successful event and the volunteers from all over the province are always happy to be coming back to Oliver.”
The dozens of volunteer firefighters who participate in the spring training sessions move from one training apparatus to the other all day Saturday and return Sunday morning before things wrap up Sunday afternoon.
Some of the training sessions included such common firefighting terms and methods such as stabilization maze, initial attack, ghost maze, forcible entry, forestry high pressure unit, guerilla knots, pyro safety, foam pit, confined spaces training, RCMP Explosive Disposal Unit, vehicle fires, swift water rescue, ladder rescue bailouts and environmental spills.
Experienced professional firefighters and volunteers are brought in from across the province to lead the training sessions.
Volunteers from Oliver, Osoyoos, Penticton, Naramata, Summerland, Peachland, West Kelowna and Kelowna all participated in the weekend training sessions.
The spring training sessions started close to 35 years ago when the Town of Oliver department volunteered to host the event and that inaugural event was so successful, that the town’s fire department has hosted every second year ever since, said Skaros.
“There have been a couple of times when no one else stepped forward and we did it a couple of years in a row, but for the most part it has been every second year since we first started 34 years ago,” he said.
The amount of support for this event is incredible, said Skaros.
Weyerhaeuser forest products in Princeton and Gorman Brothers forest products in West Kelowna have both provided wood products free of charge for many years as major corporate sponsors of the event and FortisBC has also been a loyal corporate sponsor, he said.
“The amount of community support we get from the big forest companies and the local business community here in Oliver is just incredible,” said Skaros. “All of the businesses really want to be part of this event.”
The 26 current members with the Oliver fire department sold dozens of Hold The Line T-shirts this past weekend and helped raise more than $10,000 that will be donated to help citizens in Rock Creek and Midway who lost their homes during last summer’s wildfires, said Skaros.
Michelle Petrusevich, public safety manager with FortisBC, said the utility company is proud to have been a loyal corporate sponsor of the spring sessions for many years.
“At FortisBC, safety remains our highest priority and we are very supportive of all of the efforts made by first responders who work in emergencies involving natural gas and electricity,” said Petrusevich.
FortisBC plans on remaining a corporate sponsor of the spring training sessions for many years to come, she said.
Skaros said he and his members are already looking forward to hosting the spring training seminar in Oliver two years down the road in 2018.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
More than 350 volunteer firefighters from across B.C. gathered at the Town of Oliver Community Centre this past weekend to participate in the annual B.C. Volunteer Firefighter Shut-Up & Train Spring Training Seminar. The Town of Oliver Fire Department has hosted this event every second year for more than 30 years. (Keith Lacey photo)
