Holyrood fire department hands out the hardware

By Craig Westcott/December 30, 2022

Public safety committee chairman Bruce King says the strong morale of the Holyrood Volunteer Fire Department is pretty evident from the way its members interact with each other.

The councillor said he recently attended the department’s annual ball and awards night and noticed exactly that.

“They all seem to be gelled as one complete group,” said King, who has some knowledge of the importance of morale given his career in the Canadian Armed Forces from which he recently retired. “That is a direct reflection on the chain of command and is a direct reflection on the chief and on the officers there at the fire department. You can tell that these people work well together, they gel as a team together, they enjoy each other’s company, which in a lot of places you can’t say that. And in my opinion, anyway, we have an outstanding fire department.”

King noted that this year marks the 50th year of the brigade, and it was a busy one. “In 2022 they broke an all-time record – so far they have had 166 emergency calls, and based on last year, that is up 25 per cent,” he noted.

During the banquet, Nick Jarvis Butler was presented with the Firefighter of the Year Award, while Kyle Hawco was commended as the Fire Officer of the Year, King reported.

Many of the members participated in higher levels of training during the past 12 months, King added.

“And this year was the first time in the fire department’s history that they had an instructor level (person) at the Provincial Fire Training School,” said the councillor. “That’s a big milestone. The other big milestone is that the department right now has 12 female firefighters on staff. So overall we’re in very good hands when it comes to the fire department.”