It was a celebration long in coming for the newly-formed Rural Municipality of North Battleford Fire Department.
Thursday marked the official grand opening of their new fire hall located at the junction of Highway 4 and Forest Hall Road in the R.M. of North Battleford.
It was a day of food, tours, displays and demonstrations, as the volunteer fire department showed off their equipment and their new digs.
While this is the official grand opening, the reality is the fire department has been operating for a while now. The RM ended their agreement with the City of North Battleford for fire services on March 31, 2019 and set up their own volunteer department soon afterwards.
It was April 7, 2019 that the department responded to their first call, a motor vehicle accident.
Since then, it has been onwards and upwards for the 20-member volunteer fire department, currently led by co-Fire Chiefs Trevor Watts and Aaron McNabb.
“Council’s been excellent to work with, they’re very quick on things, on making decisions to get things started for us,” said Watts. “That really helped us with their support and donor support as well.”
They also credited Neil Good, the original Fire Chief at the RM, for his work in getting the department up and running.
The RM moved ahead with purchasing equipment and putting together a fire department. After sharing the R.M.’s municipality shop for several months, they were finally able to move into their own newly-built dedicated 6,400 square foot fire hall around September of last year.
Having a fire hall to call home is something the department welcomes, as a base to do all their training and respond to calls.
“It solidifies your identity as a fire department,” said co-chief McNabb.
But the move into the new Fire Hall took place in the middle of a pandemic, which pushed back the public grand opening celebration at the fire hall until this summer.
At the grand opening event, the fire department was able to show off their fleet of equipment, which now includes their two tankers including their main fire engine, as well as two pump trucks, a utility truck, and a side-by-side for rescues.
At Thursday’s event, the fire department acknowledged the financial support of a number of sponsors including Richardson Pioneer Grain ($75,000), P & H ($25,000), Northland Power ($30,000), Cargill Grain ($10,000), Nutrien, and numerous individual and other sponsors.
Their support was used to purchase the equipment needed by the department. The department is looking to raise more money so they can add a rapid response unit.
Serafina Energy made the most recent major donation of $30,000 and made their cheque presentation at the event Thursday.
