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Fraser Lake fire rescue training centre breaks ground

Fire safety in North-western British Columbia is on its way to getting a boost with a new training centre.

“The training centre will be located in Fraser Lake simply due to the fact that the land is available there,” says Fraser Lake Fire Rescue Training Society President, Dave Christie. “It is fairly central within the regional district of the Bulkley-Nechako.”

The facility broke ground on August 16th, with the society gearing up for phase two of the project.

Phase two includes applying for funding through various regional and provincial organizations. The funding will help go towards a new Live Fire Burn Building and a Wildfire Sprinkler Protection Unit. Christie says they hope to have all the funding in place by December.

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The third phase of the project is to begin operation of the centre. The plan right now, Christie says, is to have the facility operational by late spring or early summer of 2018.

The new centre will help with the new training requirements for firefighters. Departments need to meet a certain standard in terms of an exterior attack, interior attack, or both.

There is currently only one training centre in the area, located in Fort St. James.

“It has a great reputation and has trained a lot of firefighters and emergency personnel over the years,” explains Christie. “But with the new requirements, there’s a lot demand for the training but unfortunately they don’t have the capacity to offer more training programs. So the need to have a new centre is greatly increased.”

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