About Us

The Sechelt Fire Department has been in operation in various forms for approximately 75 years.

Sechelt Volunteer Fire Department

Officially formed in 1945 it was established again in 1966 under letters patent of an Improvement District called the Sechelt Fire Protection District.

The department provides Fire Protection to two distinct areas, the District of Sechelt and the Sechelt Indian Government District.

The District of Sechelt (DOS) is home to approximately 11,000 people spread amongst 4,830 hectares, within eight local communities.

The Sechelt Indian Government District (SIGD) is still one of the only Native groups in Canada to obtain self government and is home to approx 1,300 people. They are by all accounts a very progressive and modern Indian Band.

Overseeing the Improvement District is a Board of Trustees. They are a publicly elected, 5 member Board that has taxing authority over the properties within the fire district. As mentioned the Board has established the Fire Department headed by a Fire Chief. The Chief administers several staff that support the Volunteer Officers and Firefighters.

From all accounts we are a bit unique given the fact that we are a self governing local Improvement District that provide these services to two unique and separate forms of local government. We also have fire suppression agreements with a third and fourth level of government, namely the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) and the Ministry of Forests (Province of BC).

The full range of fire protection services provided by the Fire Department includes:		The Sechelt Fire Department’s fire fighting equipment includes:
fire suppression public education fire safety inspections fire investigations bylaw enforcement as it relates to fire protection training confined space and low angle rescue		3 Small Command / Utility Vehicles 1 Rescue and Support Vehicle 2 Fully Rated Triple Combination Pumpers. 1 Water Tender (1600 gal) 1 Compressed Air Foam System (CAFS) Mini Pumper 1 Reserve Pumper

These services are provided from a single Station centrally located 5525 Trail Avenue in downtown Sechelt.

Firefighters are dispatched through a Regional/GVRD 911 system that is located in Vancouver at the E-Comm building on West Hastings St.

The Sechelt Fire Department assists with incidents, as required, under Mutual and Automatic Aid agreements that are in place with the Gibsons, Roberts Creek, Halfmoon Bay and Pender Harbor Fire Departments.

Department Structure

The Sechelt Fire Department has a long and proud history of volunteer service and remained fully volunteer until 1992 when the first full time employee was hired. This volunteer commitment is still alive and well and will continue well into the future. However, in as much as all of the fire fighting is done on a volunteer basis there is the time consuming and never ending job of running the administrative side of things. This unfortunately can not be maintained on a volunteer basis, so the department employees several staff people to handle these key fire protection elements. They are as follows:

Fire Chief

Bill Higgs CFO, LAFC. The Fire Chief is responsible for all aspects of fire protection including but not limited to: Fire suppression, Firefighter training, Recruitment, Public education, Fire prevention, Public relations, Fire investigations and anything else that is required to provide this service to the public.

Assistant Fire Chief

Trevor Pike, LAFC: The Assistant Fire Chief is basically responsible for Fire Prevention. This job revolves around conducting fire inspections and public education sessions as a way of preventing fires from ever starting. This should be every Fire Department’s goal and is captured by the phrase “The fire that is prevented, is the fire best handled by the fire service”.

Training/Operations Officer

Dwight Davison, LAFC: If our first and primary objective of fire prevention fails, we need to have a well trained and equipped fire suppression force at the ready. This is the responsibility of the Training Division. The Training Officer organizes most of the weekly practices for the members and conducts a lot of the training as well. Maintenance and upkeep of the wide array of high tech firefighting and rescue equipment is also under Dwight’s care.

Administrative Assistant

Brenda Page: Brenda is our indispensable Administrative Assistant. She is kept more than busy looking after the lions share of the paper work. This includes, A/R, A/P, payroll, accounting, financial reports, reception, Spreadsheet building, Inventory, updating fire preplans, etc.

All this administrative support is in place so that the volunteer firefighters can concentrate on their training and skills enhancement.

Fire Ground Operations

The bulk of the fire ground operations and the command and control of fire suppression activities is mostly in the hands of the volunteer Officers and Firefighters. Career staff plays a support role or perhaps a command or safety role if required.

We have a contingent of 7 “line” Officers comprised of two Captains and five Lieutenants. These would be the people that you would see actively directing and participating in fire ground operations. The Fire Department has appointed an official Safety Officer as part of our Occupational Health and safety program.