More members, more calls, and more room to train

By Mark Squibb/October 7, 2022

It’s been a busy year for the Holyrood Fire Department, which seems to have grown in almost every way imaginable.

Perhaps the biggest change at the station, from a dollars-and-cents perspective at least, is a change to the station itself.

In February, work was completed on a new extension to the building which allows for additional training space.

“The new training room allows all our of members to gather to complete weekly training on Thursday nights,” said Fire Chief Evan Woodford. “It also allows us the opportunity to host first aid or fire related courses here within the building with the proper space and amenities to do so.”

The $121,000 to complete the extension comes courtesy of the provincial government’s COVID-19 Stimulus Program and was one of 250 projects completed across the province using the money.

Funding was based on a 90/10 cost share ratio, meaning the Town would have pitched in roughly $13,500.

The additional space comes at a convenient time, as membership has been soaring.

“We’ve been really busy with recruitment over the past year and have had a lot of good training,” said Woodward. “We grew our membership to 28 members, which is the highest it’s been in a long time, which is great. We also have many firefighters now that are Level I and Level II trained. So, we now have 19 out of 28 that are fully trained, and we’re working towards getting the rest of the membership trained as well.”

The station is a composite station, with four full time workers, including Woodford, manning the station Monday to Friday, from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m.

“Outside of those hours, we have a good group of volunteers for evenings and weekends,” said Woodford.

Paid employees and volunteers both have been busy this year. In fact, calls for service to the Holyrood station for this year nearly match the entirety of last year’s when the department received 124 calls for service. This year already the department has logged some 120 calls.

Across the province, fire departments have been busy battling forest fires, most notably fires near the town of Grand Falls-Windsor that burned for over a month, and shut down the highway for days at a time.

Rising risks of forest fires sparked a provincial fire ban on August 5, which was in addition to bans that several municipalities had already imposed, including Holyrood which issued a ban on July 29.

“Our members have been very busy with emergency calls,” said Woodford. “It’s been a busy year. Fortunately, we never had a big lot of forest fires this year, which is really good. People definitely paid attention to the regulations and the fire bans that we had out. It’s just been a busy year. The Town is certainly growing, with more businesses popping up, and the traffic alone has certainly increased, and that all plays a part in it.”

Members will be busy too over the coming weeks, as they are planning to visit local schools and daycares for safety talks and demonstrations to mark Fire Prevention Week. This year’s theme is ‘Fire won’t wait. Plan your escape.’

“It’s very important for families to have an escape route out of their home, and to practise it with everyone who lives inside the home, to ensure everyone is aware of their egress points and ways to get out,” said Woodford. “Another important thing is to have a common area outside the home to meet at and ensure that there are multiple exists out of the home.”

Meanwhile, one item still on the department’s wish list is a new fire truck, and it’s been on the list for some time.

“We are still actively trying to get a new rescue vehicle,” said Woodford. “We’ve been down a rescue vehicle for almost two years now, and we haven’t been able to get it replaced. So, we have three trucks in the station right now, and we usually have four. It’s long overdue.”

Trucks are usually purchased in partnership with provincial or federal funding programs.

Sadly, this March marked the passing of former fire chief Robert Bauer.

“Chief Bauer did a lot of good things for our department,” said Woodford. “He oversaw a lot of growth in our department and expanded our fleet with apparatus and career staff. He did bundles and bundles of hard work in this place, and put in many long hours, and got the department to where it’s at today.”

Bauer began his career as a firefighter in Churchill Falls in 1975, where he would eventually become chief. Upon his retirement in 2007 Bauer and his family moved to Holyrood, where he would soon take up a position with the Holyrood Fire Department.

Bauer died on March 4 following a courageous battle with cancer.

A celebration of his life, which included a motorcade from the Fire Hall down Salmonier Line to Riverhead, was held on March 12.

Holyrood firefighters serve the Town of Holyrood as well as Deer Park and Salmonier Line area. And thanks to a mutual aid agreement with the neighboring departments in Harbour Main, Avondale, Conception Harbour and Colliers, the region itself is among the best staffed areas in Newfoundland when it comes to volunteer firefighters.