The Britannia Fire Department is ready to roll.
The department was formed after the splitting-up of the Britannia-Wilton Fire Department, and will be led by Chief John Bexson. On Wednesday night, the department held an open house featuring gathered crew members and members of the council for the RM of Britannia.
The gathered members of the department were introduced during the evening, and members of the public who attended the event had a chance to check out the new department’s equipment and fire hall. The hall and the equipment within it formerly were the assets of the BWFD, which the RM of Britannia retained in the split.
“It wasn’t initially what we set out to do, but at the end of the day it worked out the easiest, and we will be keeping some of the equipment, and selling some of the equipment, and replacing it with better stuff,” said Britannia council member Kim Schindel.
Schindel said that one of the old BWFD pumper trucks will be placed on the market for sale, after the new pumper acquired for the Britannia department is fully fitted out.
“It’s a new to us truck, because it isn’t a new truck, but it is exactly what we were looking for,” said Schindel.
“We were pretty lucky to find it, and we’ll be getting rid of one of the older trucks.”
Schindel also said there are mutual aid agreements in place between Britannia and Wilton, and going forward, there shouldn’t be any interruptions of service in any area.
“We are very pleased to have so much experience on our department, and we are very happy that Chief John Bexson joined us to lead everybody, and things going forward should be better service for our ratepayers,” said Schindel.
“We look forward in the long term plans to having a truck in the Hilmond area, and that will better serve rate payers out there that before we were not able to reach in a very quick manner.”
The Britannia Fire Department consists of the following members;
-Chief John Bexson
-Deputy Chief Aaron Buckingham
-Captain Shane Fritsch
-Captain Gerry Yaremy
-Riley Bexson
-Matthew Carlin
-Bill Caverly
-Blair Collins
-Chris DenOuden
-Michael Grey
-Jayden Hallett
-Dean Loerzel
-Zack St.Denis
-Dave Wallace
-Kelan Whitrow
-Nic Zadery
-Joey Cole
-Rick Hutchinson
-Ian Brett