Niverville Fire and Emergency Services has been busy rolling in some new and innovative equipment this year—and much of it, they say, is thanks to the dedicated support of the community. As a result of years of perogy supper fundraisers and donations from the Olde Tyme Country Fair committee and the Niverville Health and Community Foundation, the department saw the addition of new breathing apparatuses along with a Rapid Intervention Team (RIT) air pack and new defibrillators.
Since they began their fundraising efforts in 2011, the department has been able to raise $100,000, which has enabled them to purchase equipment and vehicles their annual budget otherwise wouldn’t allow for.
“This is stuff that goes outside of the norm,” says Fire Chief Keith Bueckert. “The town’s been very good at giving us what we need, but there’s only so much money to go around, of course, and so we’ve put [these fundraisers] together to help meet needs within the department.”
The most recent purchases included four state-of-the-art self-contained breathing apparatuses (SCBA) along with two additional replacement air tanks. An SCBA is a device that straps to the firefighter’s back and looks much like a scuba tank used by divers. The tank provides a full hour of fresh air support for firefighters as they enter smoky buildings, unlike the old SCBAs which contained a half-hour worth of air and weighed more.
The new units contain rechargeable lithium batteries, speaking diaphragms for better radio communication, and thermal imaging systems to allow firefighters to see hot spots inside a dark and smoky building. The new units and extra tanks came at a cost of about $30,000.
These four new units act as a supplement to the ten existing units the department was able to purchase a few years back. The number of SCBAs they now own will outfit about half of the department’s 33 firefighters. The tanks can be filled right at the Niverville fire hall with the Cascade system, a large four-by-six unit containing compressed air that came at a cost of $60,000. Previously, the department needed to go out of town to fill their air tanks.
“This unit has really helped us move forward in the quality of our training when we’re using our SCBAs,” says Bueckert. “We never really wanted to burn through too many bottles, because then we had to drive all the way to La Broquerie to fill them.”
The SCBAs can now be mounted inside the new 2018 Rescue 1 vehicle, which is another recent addition to the emergency fleet this year. Purchased primarily through the town’s emergency budget surplus, the demo truck out of Brampton, Ontario will adequately carry four to five members to an emergency scene and will store much of the equipment needed at any call.
“It’s a huge accomplishment to get this truck and it’s exceeded everything we expected,” Bueckert says. “When [the members] went to pick it up, they were blown away. They said it was everything and more. A new truck like this that we were pricing out was somewhere in the neighbourhood of $160,000. We picked this up for under $140,000.”
The truck also came with a unique feature—a telescoping 12-foot LED command light that Bueckert says is about a $20,000 add on and will run off of the truck’s invertor rather than a separate generator.
Last year, the department was able to add two new defibrillators to their inventory as a result of monies received from the Niverville Health and Community Foundation’s 2018 fundraising gala.
“We’re very lucky to have the [community’s] support through the fundraising [donations] and also the support of council itself,” Bueckert adds.
And, without question, the community should also feel grateful for the investment the local volunteer emergency team is making on its behalf. Just last year, the town’s emergency crews attended 207 calls. They regularly expect about 16 calls per month. Bueckert says that 90 percent of the calls come from within the community while the other 10 percent are to neighbouring municipalities within the mutual aid area. The calls included fire, accident, and health-related incidences requiring an ambulance.
“Generally speaking, we can be at a call in under ten minutes in Niverville,” Bueckert says. “The ambulance is coming from Île-des-Chênes, so we’re starting the treatment and the ambulance can then carry on the treatment and transport of that patient.”
Nineteen of Niverville’s firefighters are cross-trained in emergency response. Ten members, including Bueckert, work full-time as firefighters or EMS outside of Niverville. For each member, their service to the Niverville department goes above and beyond their regular jobs and family schedules.
“A lot of [our members] go well beyond the stuff they need to do,” adds Bueckert. “We are a very blessed community with the volunteers we have.”
