"Our mission is to save lives, to protect property and our environment and to serve our community."

Twenty-five years ago PIFR consisted of one fire hall and one Van and one Fire Truck. We had about two calls per month. Now, we have over 300 calls per year.

Today, PIFR consists of three halls situated to optimize call times and maximize homeowner insurance benefits. And, there are nine emergency response vehicles including three fire engines, one tender (1600 gallon tanker truck) three rescues, one command vehicle and one prevention truck.

In an increasingly complex environment, PIFR has evolved to sustain its highly efficient community-based service by recruiting a much broader spectrum of volunteers ... men and women, from all walks of life, teens to seniors, working together and embracing change.

In order to better deliver on our commitment of service to the community we have grown our force of fire fighters, first responders and support volunteers substantially over the past four years. Today we have 30 active fire fighters and first responders and 2 support.

We have come to understand that the best way to make a volunteer force sustainable is to build it on a values-based foundation. Best of all, now we are able to provide a broader range of services to our community. And, we are doing it with a renewed sense of purpose, pride and honour.

Wildfire Protection Plan

The Pender Island Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) is intended to detail how wildfire risk (the potential for damage from wildfire) will be reduced on the Pender Islands. The plan provides a foundation for future collaboration, details risk assessment results, and produces an action plan for reducing wildfire risk. Agencies collaborating on this plan included Pender Island Fire Rescue, the Capital Regional District, Parks Canada, the Islands Trust, and the Ministry of Forests and Range.

Full text: PenderCWPP.pdf

Home fire safety assessment

As your neighbour here on Pender, we’d like to help you ensure that your residence is as Fire-Safe as possible. This checklist provides a guideline for you to use in assessing your home

Home Fire Safety Assessment Checklist.pdf

Inspections

Driveways

Providing access for Emergency Vehicles is a requirement under the BC Building Code. The requirements for access are defined and available from the local CRD Building Inspection Office.

Although CRD Building inspection is responsible to enforce the rules stated in the building code, there is a provision to accept a lesser standard providing the safety risks can be reasonably mitigated. It is at this point that our inspector sets out to find alternatives that will minimize the risk and assist the land owner by providing alternative solutions to CRD building inspection for consideration.

Some of the alternatives that are used are:

• Ribbed pavement on excessive grades.
• Alternative accesses via neighboring properties.
• Sprinkler Systems.
• Dry Stand Pipes.
• Intermediate Staging areas, etc.

Our goal is to find solutions that allow the property to be developed while minimizing the risk to property owners and the community.

The bottom line is that when our fire trucks cannot get to a fire the odds of containing that fire are reduced. House fires can become forest fires that affect the community at large. Sprinklers are proven to be 99 per cent effective in containing the fire in the room of origin therefore saving the structure, the lives within and the rest of the community.

When the fire inspector considers driveway access he not only considers the risks of fire he also has to consider the accessibility for medical response. In many cases seconds make the difference between life and death. Try to imagine the frustration of getting to a property fast enough to provide life saving interventions only to discover that you cannot get the emergency vehicle up to the house.

You may not think of driveway inspections as saving lives but our inspection department does.

Commercial Property Inspections

Commercial properties are required to meet the requirements of the BC Fire Code. Since January 2006 our inspection department has undertaken to inspect the highest risks in our community on an annual basis.

The response to our inspections has been overwhelmingly positive. Members of our commercial and retail community have shown great initiative in making their places safe for employees and customers.

Public education

The goal of our public education program is to reduce risk by teaching our community how to prevent or reduce the dangers of fire and medical emergencies.

Some of the programs that we have put in place to accomplish this goal are:

• Fire Smart

  • Teaching property owners how to reduce the damage that can be caused by wild fire.
  • Seminars can be provided by request for a group of 10 or more property owners.

• Schools and pre schools

  We visit the schools at least once a year and provide the following functions:

  • Learn not to burn
  • Fun Days
  • Fire Safety House

• Fire extinguisher clinics

  • Clinics are available to groups of 10 our more on request.
  • The course teaches the students about the types of extinguishers, how to use them and most importantly when to use them.
  • This is a hands on experience that may very well save your life or your property some day and once you have done it the knowledge is there forever.

• Fire and Emergency Safety Training

  • These seminars are available to owners, managers and staff of commercial properties on request.
  • The course outlines emergency priorities, fire safety, fire extinguisher training, the importance of a fire safety plan and video clips of what can happen if you don’ t consider emergency planning.

• Cadets

  • The goal of the cadet program is two fold. First, it is to involve our young people in real fire fighting training; the second is to expose them to our amazing volunteers. In the long term they may even join us on the volunteer force.
  • We have 10 Gulf Islands' cadets that practice twice a month, once a month on Salt Spring and once a month on Pender Island.
  • The program has been in place since March 2005 and already two of our cadets have joined the regular fire department.
  • This program is a hands on with our cadets helping at community events.