Firefighters needed for Westside Road department

The Wilson’s Landing Fire Hall is looking for new recruits to staff up the hall for the coming fire season.

The Regional District of Central Okanagan says anyone living along Westside Road between Traders Cove and Shelter Cove and interested in joining the Wilson’s Landing Fire Department is encouraged to attend an information session at Station 42 on April 3 at 6:30 p.m.

The firehall is located at 2396 Westside Road North.

The event will focus on three areas.

• Get involved in helping your neighbours by becoming a paid-on-call firefighter
• Learn about the department’s firefighting, fire prevention and first medical response programs
• See department firefighting apparatus and take the opportunity to speak with serving firefighters and officers.

The Wilson’s Landing community is a rural area within the unincorporated Central Okanagan West Electoral Area. The Fire Protection District extends north along Westside Road from Trader’s Cove to Shelter Cove.

There are approximately 175 homes/cottages with an estimated 500 residents during the summer. The community also includes a major destination resort, Lake Okanagan Resort, as well as a church camp and Girl Guides camp.

The forest makeup throughout the area is mostly Ponderosa pine as well as Douglas fir, making the area suspectible to interface fires like the one the area experienced in 2021.

The department was established in 1984 when a fire engine being stored at a member’s home in order to save on insurance was used to protect homes from fire. Shortly after, the engine was moved to a newly built fire hall that had only a single door garage. This old hall sits next to the current fire hall. The department tries to maintain a roster of 25 members.

The department currently has three pieces of equipment, an engine, tender and bush truck, with mutual aide agreements in place with the District of West Kelowna and The North Westside Fire Rescue Service.

Application packages and recruitment information will be available and may be downloaded from the RDCO website: rdco.com/firerecruit.

Interviews will take place April 4-7 and training will be provided for successful applicants.

Candidates need to be between 19 and 65 and in good physical condition. Members of the fire department must live within 8 km of Station 42 at 2396 Westside Road North.