Rural house fire leaves residents concerned with response times

A house fire in a quiet south shore neighbourhood has residents concerned with response times for the area.

“I was thinking that if we didn’t get water soon we were going to lose our homes,” Peggy Pippy said, a neighbour who lives two doors up from the burnt home.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I was thinking that if we didn't get water soon we were going to lose our homes," Peggy Pippy said, a neighbour who lives two doors up from the burnt home.

The fire broke out around 8 p.m. on Nov. 12.

During weekends fire calls in the area are handled by volunteers.

The standard for rural calls is for volunteers to reach the station in six minutes and be on the scene in 10.

This call fell short.

“They got there in 20 minutes so they didn’t meet the standard. We don’t have adequate volunteers for evenings and weekends, we don’t have dry hydrants to get water out of the lake or the ocean to put out the fires, so I’ve got serious concerns,” Matt Whitman said, district councillor for Hammonds Plains, St. Margarets.

Attracting volunteer firefighters for rural areas is a challenge that Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency are working to improve.

“We have a compensation model in place, we do compensate volunteers for they’re time and we were fortunate to get another $1.4 million dollars from council to add to that,” Deputy Chief Roy Hollet said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "We have a compensation model in place, we do compensate volunteers for they're time and we were fortunate to get another $1.4 million dollars from council to add to that," Deputy Chief Roy Hollet said.

Hollett says this particular fire was already through the roof when crews arrived, meaning their attack plan changed to reflect the safety of fighters.

“When the fires burning that intensely sending a crew inside is a risk so if we can confirm there’s nobody to rescue inside, we likely won’t send a crew in,” he said.

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Pippy says the area desperately needs an increase in volunteers in order to adequately protect the community.

“Right now I hear we only have three volunteer firefighters in our station, I’d like to see at least 20, that way there’s actually a chance of saving someone’s home,” she said.

She adds that her biggest fear is that the next fire may involve a loss of life, if resources don’t improve.