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By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

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Drayton and Brazeau fire department in desperate need of new members

Jul 20, 2019 | 5:14 PM

Calling all Drayton Valley and Brazeau County residents – your fire department needs you.

The number of members has dwindled over the last few years, according to Chief Tom Thomson, who blames the economy.

“We do have a shortage and we are in desperate need of having new members join our team. We are normally at around 35 members and right now we are down to under 25,” he says.

“Members are moving to other communities, and they are changing jobs, which makes them unable to be part of the fire department.”

The fire department in Drayton Valley and Brazeau County responds to approximately 300 calls annually.

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Thomson says while thankfully the shortage hasn’t meant they’ve missed calls, it has left more work for existing members to do.

“Our membership is getting tired. Usually we do an on call rotation where different squads will be on call and respond to calls for a week,” he says. “Because of our low membership, we are having all members attend all the time, which puts a strain on families, on work life and on members.”

Firefighter positions are paid, including for each call, training and attending fire department functions.

Thompson explains new recruits do 30 hours of training before attending calls, and then can spend the next two years taking the NFPA 1001 International Firefighter Training program. Graduation from the program qualifies a person for any fire department in the world.

On firefighting being a daunting task or something scary, Thomson admits there are risks, but they do their best to provide the best equipment and training possible.

“The fire service here has an extremely good record in terms of safety,” he adds.

“We have not had any major incidents where we’ve had loss of life or serious injury. We pride ourselves on that and we continue to maintain a high safety level.”

For more information on becoming a member of Drayton Valley and Brazeau County Fire Services, call 780-514-2216.