The Forest Grove Volunteer Fire Department (Forest Grove VFD) has had a new wildfire skid truck donated to them by GlobalFire.
The VFD thanked GlobalFire on Facebook on Aug. 7, for the donation. They were one of the dozens of fire departments in the Cariboo Regional District and Thompson Nicola Regional District that received the new units.
"It's wonderful. It's a wonderful donation - we love it. We picked it up last Tuesday. We had it in service Tuesday evening as our first practice visit," stated Michelle Meeker, the fire chief of the Forest Grove VFD.
Other fire departments that received new fire skids in the CRD included Lac La Hache Volunteer Fire Department, the Interlakes Volunteer Fire Department, the Kersley Volunteer Fire Department, the Barlow Creek Volunteer Fire Department, the Bouchie Lake Volunteer Fire Department and the Quesnel Fire Department. In the TNRD 16 departments received new skids including the South Green Lake Volunteer Fre Department and the Cache Creek Fire Department. The 70 Mile Volunteer Fire Department, which is independent of the CRD and TNRD, also received a skid.
GlobalFire is a team of volunteers, managed by GlobalMedic, who strive to strengthen the emergency response capability of volunteer and underfunded fire departments around the world. Jaime Cross, the senior emergency programs manager at GlobalMedic, said the donation consists of a contained unit that can be mounted into the back of a pick-up truck.
"Essentially, it turns that vehicle into a small fire truck - it contains, you know, a 1,000 litre tank for water, has the pump, has the base, and it's all contained into that one unit, so it's self-contained and can run on its own," Cross explained.
Each of these units costs GlobalMedic $4,000, she added.
"The nice thing with these pickup trucks and these smaller vehicles that can carry the unit, it can actually get into places that some of these larger trucks aren't able to manoeuvre in as well," Cross said.
Meeker agrees with Cross' assessment of how this new unit will be utilized. She noted that there have been several fires this summer that were along smaller roads or in the bush this new skid would have allowed them to access and fight faster - a sentiment backed up by Paol Beer, the fire chief of the Interlakes Volunteer Fire Department who received three skids from GlobalMedic.
"It's going to help the fire department action fire in hard-to-reach areas where we may not be able to or want to bring our big apparatus, or big fire engine or tenders," stated Beer.
Roger Hollander, the regional fire chief for the CRD, states that the new wildland firefighting apparatus will expand the rapid attack capabilities of the volunteer fire departments.
"These skids can be run with fewer firefighters and let them get on scene to a small fire, like grass fires, before they can expand out of control and without needing heavier apparatus," Hollander stated in a quote provided to the simplymastery.
As for the TNRD, they put out a press release announcing the donations on August 13 on their website.
"These fire skids are important sets of equipment to help our local fire departments protect their communities from wildfire, and they have been put to use a number of times this year," stated Jason Tomlin, the TNRD's Fire Protection Services manager, in a press release announcing the TNRD donations.
Rahul Singh, who is GlobalMedic's founder and executive director, stated that they are grateful to their friends at the TNRD.
"They have let us use their base in Kamloops to act as a cross-dock to receive and distribute skid units to fire departments around the region," he noted.
Cross said it is important to donate this equipment to fire departments because of the increase in wildfire activity in recent years.
"Obviously the damage that's caused by these fires is quite immense," Cross said. "The impact to lives is immense when people are forced to evacuate, and towns are really impacted by these and these local departments are really working so hard to help control the fires and help minimize the impact."
Cross states that they are not done yet donating.
"As we continue to get more requests, we'll continue to make these groupings so that we can do future distribution."
