Volunteers needed for new east end fire hall

By Marci Becking

NIPISSING FIRST NATION – When the new fire hall in Duchesnay is fully operational with volunteers, it will save Nipissing First Nation $74,000 annually.

Facilities manager for the community, Patrick Stevens, says that Nipissing First Nation has been able to decrease the cost to the City of North Bay by re-negotiating their contract.  With the new fire hall servicing the east end of Nipissing’s land along Hwy 17, this number will be reduced to zero.

“We received $249,000 from the Trillium Foundation which covered nearly a third of the total building cost,” says Stevens of the structure located at 73 Couchie Industrial Road by Necessities.  “The balance of the funding for the building and the two used trucks was covered by Nipissing First Nation.”

Fire Chief Melvin McLeod says that there were a total of three used fire trucks purchased.

“Two are for Garden Village,” says McLeod.  “One being a 3000 gallon tanker and the other is an 800 gallon pumper.  The one for the new Duchesnay fire hall is a 750 gallon pumper from East Can Fire Trucks in Moncton, New Brunswick.”

McLeod says that response time for volunteers should be a little quicker since he is anticipating that the volunteers will come from those who live in Duchesnay, Yelleck and North Bay.

“We are always open to volunteers as sometimes we are not sure who is able to respond,” says McLeod.  “We would like to have 12-15 volunteers.”

McLeod is also exploring the opportunity with employers in the area to possibly have some of their workers involved with the Duschesnay Fire Hall.

“It would be great to have trained volunteers who are available to respond to calls during the day,” says McLeod.

Construction for the new hall started last fall and was completed this past August.

To volunteer with the Nipissing First Nation Fire Department, please contact Melvin McLeod melvinm@nfn.ca 705-753-4319.