Learning fire safety From the Ground Up
By Rick Garrick
FORT WILLIAM FIRST NATION — Fort William’s Ian Bannon enjoyed trying out the live fire extinguisher training activity at the community’s From the Ground Up event, held May 30 at the Fort William First Nation Community Centre.
“I’ve done it before, so it brings back a lot of memories in practising that,” says Bannon, acting CEO at Fort William. “We’ve had an influx of construction opportunities in the community, a lot of people building homes, buying homes — this is a perfect opportunity for our members to interact with our vendors that we deal with, from the safety component, all the way to construction, windows, doors, roofing.”
Bannon says it was an excellent opportunity for the community to get together, learn, and share experiences with each other.
“There’s activities for all ages,” Bannon says. “We want to make sure [our children)] are kept entertained while the parents are here, so they’re doing some birdhouse construction. We try to incorporate everything for the families; there’s lots of great prizes at the end of the day for the draws.”
David Busby, branch manager at Everguard Fire Safety in Thunder Bay, says they provided information on fire safety and how to properly use a handheld fire extinguisher.
“The biggest thing for a fire extinguisher is an acronym — PASS: pull, aim, squeeze, sweep,” Bannon says. “So you’re going to pull the pin, you’re going to aim the hose at the base of the fire, squeeze the handles together, and sweep back and forth at the base of the fire.”
Steve Steinberg, installer, certifier, inspector, and fire trainer at Everguard Fire Safety, says using a real fire is the best way to train people on how to use a fire extinguisher.
“We use a real fire where you get the real unpredictability of the fire, the heat in your face, the smoke, the flames, and it takes away that initial fear from the first time using one,” Steinberg says.
Marienne Andersson, housing coordinator at Fort William, says the From the Ground Up event was organized so people could see all of the steps that are involved in a home project.
“We thought it would benefit them to see all the steps involved,” Andersson says. “It could take up to a year to get to the point of actually building your home.”
Tamara Sheedy, owner/CEO at SRS Windows and Doors Inc. and a Fort William citizen, says they do windows, doors, siding, soffit, fascia, and continuous trough for homes as well as commercial, institutional, and industrial buildings, and have been in business for 18 years.
“We’ve moved to our new location, it’s at 665 Beaverhall Place,” Sheedy says. “Our showroom is not completely set up yet for the public; however, we’re hoping to get that done later this summer. I’m hoping we can do our massive grand opening [on] Labour Day weekend or around that area.”
Mike Davis, director of business strategies at Smart Modular Canada, which is located in Rosslyn in the Thunder Bay area, says they were sharing information about their modular home buildings.
“We’re really excited coming up to this season because we have quite a few houses coming out to the First Nation here,” Davis says. “Today, we are here to help families that are going through their journey on getting land and providing a house for their family.”
Joseph Osei Ababio, Ontario land surveyor and Canada land surveyor at JD Barnes Ltd., says they had lots of people asking about getting property surveyed.
“And I think our drone has also caught a lot of eyes — a lot of people are interested in what we use a drone for,” Osei Ababio says. “People assume when they see drones that it’s mainly for photos and videos, but we have survey-grade drones that help us also survey things like topography on properties, so in case you’re interested in doing a land development on your property and are curious about what the topography is, we have that as well. People are also curious to know what the processes are when it comes to getting a CP (Certificate of Possession) issued for a property on a reserve and we have these brochures explaining that in detail.”