A grant application for Powell River Fire Rescue is designed to assist the fire department in training its members.
At the City of Powell River Council meeting on Thursday, July 19, councillors supported a grant application, for up to $25,000, to assist the fire department in leadership and command training.
At the Tuesday, December 17, committee of the whole meeting, in introducing the initiative to councillors, city chief administrative officer Russell Brewer said the report from Powell River Fire Rescue he was outlining was seeking city council’s support for a grant application and providing overall grant management. Powell River Fire Rescue wanted to apply for a Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) $25,000 grant through the UBCM’s community emergency preparedness fund.
“Powell River Fire Rescue has established incident command training as a priority for all career firefighters and auxiliary officers,” said Brewer. He said Powell River does not have a purpose-built facility here, so the virtual training equipment option would allow firefighters to train in Powell River and help improve incident command training.
Brewer said the UBCM grant was 100 per cent funding, so there was no need for matching funds on the city’s behalf.
“If council is supportive, the recommendation before you would go to UBCM and we’ll find out in the new year if we’re successful,” he added.
Brewer said he understands that the grant would cover equipment and software.
Councillor George Doubt said the virtual training tool sounds like an interesting idea, with software and hardware supplied. He wondered if there were any protocols in place for sharing the tools with various volunteer departments in the region.
Councillor Maggie Hathaway said they all train together.
Deputy fire chief Rocky Swanson, in a report to council, stated that although not a replacement for hands-on training, the proposed virtual reality system will simulate environments firefighters may encounter.
“This grant application provides an opportunity to procure a piece of training equipment that would not otherwise be possible within existing operating budgets,” stated Swanson.
