The 70 Mile House Volunteer Fire Department (VFD) needs new members.
Right now the VFD consists of nine volunteer members, plus the fire chief, but Dennis Huber, the chairperson of the 70 Mile House Firefighters Association, said they’d like to recruit more to better serve the community
“Our biggest concerns right now are budgeting and volunteers. We need more volunteers, as with every fire department I think,” Huber said. “We have to a minimum complement of four to respond to a situation.”
The 70 Mile VFD recently transitioned from being a department funded by Thompson Nicola Regional District to a fee-for-service model which will require residents who want fire protection to pay dues of $400 per property. At a meeting last November when Huber announced these changes emotions ran high, with a handful of the 50 people in attendance declaring they wouldn’t buy into the system.
Huber said that the VFD has not collected any fees for 2024 because they’re short on volunteers and feel they can’t keep up their end of the bargain. They’ve chosen instead to operate with the money they have in the bank and start collecting fees in 2025 after they recruit and train some new members.
“We don’t have enough volunteers to respond to a fire, so we need more volunteers so we can respond to a fire and go after budget funding from the community,” Huber explained. “We’re in a limbo state right now.”
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In addition to providing the community with a valuable service, Huber said that those who join the department can get up to $3,000 a year back on their income tax providing an added financial incentive.
Huber said there are a few people in the community interested in becoming members and he’s hoping to find more ahead of the VFD’s annual general meeting on Monday, May 27 at 7 p.m. at the 70 Mile House Community Hall. He encourages the entire community to attend so they can vote for a new board and discuss the 2025 budget.
“The community has to make a decision on the budgeting. That’s the biggest thing they have to show up for because the proposal has to carry and they get to vote on whether or not we spend that much money in a year,” Huber said. “What we’re looking at is $400 a property which isn’t a huge chunk of money but for some people if they’re on a fixed pension it could be rather large.”
The $400 fee would, ideally, come from over 140 lots within the 70 Mile VFD’s fire protection area. If 90 per cent of those properties agree the department would have a budget of around $60,000 a year.
“Out of that we can operate and put money aside to buy new equipment,” Huber explained.
