A message from the Claresholm Fire Chief

By Craig White, Fire Chief, Town of Claresholm
It is the time of year where we at the Claresholm Fire Department take a look back and reflect on the calls and events of the past 12 months.
At the time of writing this message, your Claresholm Fire Department has already responded to over 230 calls. While this number is down slightly from last year, it is still a significant number of events for our volunteer firefighters! These responses include: medical first responses as well as co-responses to assist EMS on medical scenes, motor vehicle collisions, wildland and structure fires.
This past year has seen a significant changing of the guard at Claresholm Fire with the retirement of three of our longest serving members. Danny Egger (38 years of service), Gerald McNair (33 years of service), and Grant Ling (22 years of service). Their dedication and knowledge will surely be missed by all, and we commend you for your years of service.
Medical calls still account for a large number of events responded to by our members. We are grateful to have not only all members trained to standard first-aid and CPR, but a number of registered Paramedics and EMRs who can assist EMS with patient care, or provide care until EMS arrives.
In August we hosted our annual fundraising golf tournament. Due to your generous donations and those that came out to golf, we were able to raise over $12,000 towards our fire hall renovations and expansion.
Claresholm Fire welcomed the following members into our fire family: Seth Wagner, Braden Morrison, and Mark Hoffman. In September, we were able to honour and celebrate our long serving members at our annual awards night.
Members recognized include: Deputy Chief Dallas Woodman, 15 years; Firefighter Charles Loeffler, five years; and our one-year members: Landon Hatch, Jay Hallett, Andrew Lessard, Brad Toone and Michael Bernardo.
In addition to our long service members, the following members also hung up their bunker gear for the last time this year: Dale Lytwyn (13 years of service) and Lisa Perry (four years of service)
Claresholm Fire would like extend its appreciation to the Town of Claresholm, M.D. of Willow Creek, and all the businesses and residents of our communities for their support.
We would also like to commend those local businesses who employ a volunteer firefighter and allow them to leave on a moment’s notice to attend fire calls.
Please join us at the fire hall for our open house on Oct. 14, starting at 1 p.m. We will also be visiting the elementary and play school during Fire Prevention Week which runs from Oct. 8 to 14.
I would also like to take a moment to recognize the other First Responders / Emergency Services that we work with on a regular basis: AHSEMS (Claresholm, Fort MacLeod, Nanton, and Vulcan), Pincher Creek Fire and EMS, RCMP (Claresholm, Nanton, Fort Macleod), as well as all our Intermunicipal Fire Partners: Nanton, Stavely, Granum and Fort Macleod.