Members of the Elk Valley and South Country Rural Fire Service will be in Hosmer early next week as the “Hosmer Fire Recruitment Drive” gets underway.
“We will have some of our volunteers from Hosmer, Jaffray and Baynes Lake Departments out in the community doing a door to door awareness campaign, answering questions and providing information,” explained Fire Chief Dave Boreen. “We also have a community dinner and information session lined up at the Hosmer Community Hall on Feb. 18 to help get the word out and encourage people to fill out application forms.”
The free community dinner will start at 6 p.m. and will be followed by presentations about being a paid-on-call firefighter for the Hosmer Fire Department.
The most critical need right now is to have volunteers signed up and getting trained. The department needs to have 15 firefighters on the roster and currently, the numbers have dropped to seven.
“Without enough committed volunteers, there will be no fire service,” said Boreen. “Once volunteers submit their application packages, they can begin training right away and we will have them do both an online training component as well as hands-on training.”
Application forms are available on the RDEK’s website and at the Hosmer Fire Hall. Packages will also be available during the door-to-door campaign, and at the dinner next week.
The deadline for applications to be submitted is April 15.
The recruitment drive will also include two Open Houses during training nights. There will be an interactive training night on Mar. 8 and a community fire extinguisher training night on April 5.
Anyone looking for more information on how to become a paid-on-call firefighter in Hosmer can contact Boreen at 250-429-3133 or visit www.rdek.bc.ca.