The Osoyoos Fire Department is hosting an open house on Oct. 12 from 11:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. (File photo)

By Vanessa Broadbent

Osoyoos Times

It’s fire prevention week and local firefighters are inviting the public to see what they do in hopes they will join the team.

The Osoyoos Fire Department is hosting an open house and barbecue on Saturday, Oct. 12 from 11:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. where the community can watch firefighting demonstrations, tour the firehall, meet the members and ask questions, along with activities for kids.

The department relies on 21 dedicated paid on-call members, and fire chief Dave McMahon hopes to increase membership to between 35 and 40.

“I think there’s a huge sense of fulfilment; you get to work with your peer group and you’re all working to a common goal,” he said.

Having more members on the department will alleviate the time commitment required of the current members, McMahon said.

“The more members we have that train to that level means that we can maintain the emergency response. People have jobs outside of the department that pay the bills and we fully understand that so we need the membership number to be higher so that when the calls come in we have enough members to respond and deal with the incident that’s in front of us.”

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Members train once a week for three hours, currently on Wednesday evenings although McMahon says he’s open to adding other dates as needed.

Members are required to attend 70 per cent of training nights, and 30 per cent of calls. The department gets about 200 calls a year.

“If people can give more than that, that’s great and we would celebrate that, but that’s the commitment level we would be looking for from our members,” McMahon said.

Since McMahon joined the department as its first full-time fire chief in early July, it has partnered with Vancouver Island-based emergency response agency Viera, allowing members to complete career-level training.

“My vision for this town is that we provide the best service for our citizens and get as close to career fire department services as we can to ensure that we can keep people safe,” McMahon said.

Members are just starting the training and it will take between 18 months and two years for all to finish.

Completing the training, financially covered by the department, is an asset for anyone looking to join a career fire department in a larger municipality, McMahon said.

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“Maybe some people have thought in the back of their minds they would love to become career firefighters so they can come here and we will quite happily support them in that journey,” he said.

“The benefit for the community is that the member is here because they want to get experience, they want to give back to the community in the biggest way, they want to build their resume, and there’s nothing wrong with fire departments supporting those endeavors because that then rubs off on other people that they have that really passionate person within their numbers that they want to be part of that journey.”

And for those wanting to stay in Osoyoos, the increased training helps members prepare for the diverse calls local firefighters respond to, ranging from motor vehicle accidents to ice rescue.

“Not everybody wants to be a career firefighter, but you can come here and stand peer-to-peer with the rest of the industry knowing you’re as good as anybody,” McMahon said.

Aside from being at least 18 years old and able to physically complete the training, there aren’t any requirements to joining the department.

“I encourage anybody and everybody that’s interested to come and talk and then we can get more into the specifics,” McMahon said.

The open house takes place at the Osoyoos Firehall, located at 9901 74 Ave., on Oct. 12 from 11:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.