Alisha Thompson, Territory Manager, for Corteva Agriscience handed $5,000 to Lieutenant Trevor Green, training officer with the Moosomin Fire Department, on behalf of the company.
The funding is to go toward purchase of a new rescue unit for the Moosomin Fire Department.
The department is raising funds for the new unit, to replace an older unit.
The new unit will be able to act as a mobile command unit, with a computer, and with RM maps and blueprints of larger buildings kept right in the unit.
The funding came from Corteva’s Community Investment Program.
“Companies that are interested in Corteva Agriscience’s community Investment Program are encouraged to check out the program on our website. They are then able to submit their information to our company. We then reach out with the application that asks for further details on their organization and the project they may need funding for,” says Lindsay Hamilton Adminstrative Co-ordinator at Corteva Agriscience.
“We then review applications at committee meetings with members from across Canada working at Corteva Agriscience.
“We take the time to review the applications and the requests. We see some really great use of funds, and some really great projects that help communities in many ways. We ensure projects align with our values and goals at Corteva before choosing the organizations that will receive funds. Unfortunately, we aren’t able to help every organization that submits an application, but are very glad to be able to help the Moosomin Fire Department keep their community safe,” says Hamilton.
The Moosomin Fire Department applied for the this program in the fall of last year and received the secondary application in February.
They received word that Moosomin Fire Department was approved for the donation at the beginning of July.
The money will go towards the purchase of a new rescue command truck for the Moosomin fire department.
The rescue command truck will be larger than the current one and will be able to carry more equipment.
This will help cut response time because of less time spent loading equipment.
“For a small town we are very busy, this last ten days we have had five accidents,” says Green.
The new truck will will be able to carry all the rescue equipment that might be needed on a call already on board.
It will reduce response time to emergency calls.
Because the current unit doesn’t have as much room, specialized equipment specific to the call, such as water rescue equipment, has to be loaded onto the truck before the firefighters leave the fire hall.
“(Right now) If go somewhere, we have to load all this stuff before we go. That is three minutes four minutes response time. That is a lot of time if someone is in the water,” says Green.
With a rescue area that stretches form the provincial border in the east to the New Finland road just west of Wapalla and as far north as Cailmount Road and 7 miles south of the village of Fairlight, it is clear why it is important to have a better equipped rescue command truck.
“We have to keep our stuff up to date, because of the area we cover and the population growth we have had in Moosomin.”
He goes on to say that the number of calls received by the department has more than doubled.
“I started 14 years ago, if we sew 40 calls in a year that was kind of par for the course, now we’ve had years where there are almost 90 calls,” says Green.
The Moosomin Fire Department is staffed by a volunteer brigade with the average firefighter logging between 150 and 300 hours per year.
