Noel and District Volunteer Fire Department
1639 Burncoat Rd B0N 1T0 Noel, NS, Canada

The Nova Scotia Firefighters 50-50 weekly draw is now the largest 50/50 draw in Atlantic Canada, and provides critical funding for fire departments at a time when regular fundraising is not possible. The 50/50 is administered by the Amherst Firefighters Association and it is a monumental undertaking with over 250 organizations represented in the draw. 35 percent of ticket sales go to the named department when you purchase tickets. To purchase tickets in support of Noel and ...District VFD, please follow this link. www.firefighters5050.com/67 Draws are every Thursday!

Please note that due to public health restrictions related to the recent surge in COVID cases, the BBQ tomorrow (May 2nd) has been cancelled.

Of local interest. NOEL VFD has sent two members for training on boat operations, and intends to send more when training is available. Cobequid Bay and the Minas basin are challenging places to operate a boat, as conditions change rapidly, and the bay changes somewhat with every tidal cycle. https://thelaker.ca/fire-department-seeks-rescue-watercraf/

We had a chimney fire call on Saturday morning. Monday's training consisted of truck checks, and we changed out an intake valve on our tanker with a straight fitting. As the truck already has an electric valve on that intake, the barrel valve on the truck was redundant. This will speed up hookups, and results in less components that might fail. As we are now in December, many people look to put up Christmas trees, many of those are live trees. If you have a live tree it is im...portant to check their water every day, as these trees can dry out very quickly and become very flammable. Also, using LED lights on a live tree will dramatically slow down the drying as they produce much less heat than incandescent bulbs. The video link here demonstrates the dramatic difference between a watered tree and a dry tree. https://youtu.be/bhmrjDNtjcs

We have had no calls in the past two weeks. Due to COVID, EHS has not been dispatching us out to medical calls since late March and have no information on when that may change. As always, we stand ready to help in whatever capacity is needed. Last week was hall cleanup and stowing 1000 feet of new 1 3/4" attack line. These hoses are easier to handle than a 2 1/2" line and still deliver a lot of water where it's needed. 1 3/4" line is used on our pre-connects, which are hoses ...and nozzles stored in such a way that they can quickly be pulled off the truck and used in a fire, usually by one person for exterior attack to quickly knock down a fire at it's origin. These lines are also used by two person interior attack teams. FC Greene, DC Hughes and FF Ethridge attended a very scaled down Rememberance day ceremony at the North Noel Legion, laid a wreath on behalf of the department and paid their respects to those who have paid the ultimate price for our country. This Monday was a business meeting, which goes over finances, equipment, training and other issues that are important to the operation of the department. Walton Shore Volunteer Fire Dept hosted a 4 day Small Vessel Operator Proficiency training event last week to prepare their members for operation of the rescue boat they are currently specifying and procuring. As part of that, FF Friesen and myself FF Whittaker attended the event, as Noel Fire Department will provide backup crews for boat operations, and crews for operations in our area. SVOP is the entry level commercial marine license, and topics covered included navigation, chart work, emergency procedures and maritime law. Cobequid Bay presents a challenging environment to operate a small boat in, and once the craft has been obtained, operational training will also take place. Noel is also looking to train two more members to the SVOP level.

We have had no calls in the past week. Monday's training was some hall maintenance, and a check of all of our SCBA packs. The SCBA check included verifying the air tank was full, verifying the operation of the remote gauge and PASS alarms. Our air packs are a vital part of our PPE, and their proper operation is critical to the safety of our members when operating in a hazardous environment. ... COVID case numbers are on the rise in Nova Scotia, and public health restrictions are in place for parts of Hants county, but does NOT currently include our area. Please be safe, be kind and follow public health guidelines so we can get through this next wave. https://novascotia.ca/coronavirus/county-restrictions/hants/

We hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween! On Saturday we had a residential structure fire. We were assisted by Kennetcook Volunteer Fire Department and Maitland Volunteer Fire Department. Monday training consisted of putting items back.in the hall that we took out last week to allow the floor to be painted, also we set out extra cones on our helipad to assist EHS Helicopters in landing.... As we have ended daylight savings time,.it's an excellent time to change the batteries in your smoke detectors. At the same time it's also a good idea to check the manufacturer date of your smoke detectors, as if they are 10 years old or older, they need to be replaced. This is due to the active element in detectors degrading over time, and effecting the ability of the detector to sense smoke.

We have had no calls this past week. Monday training night consisted of clearing out our truck bays in preparation for floor polishing and a new coat of high visibility paint and alignment lines to make backing the trucks up easier and safer. As we move into cooler months, training activities will shift from outdoors activities to indoor, although we will certainly still do training outdoors during the winter, safety has to be taken into account when arranging these activities

We had no calls this week. Monday night saw us hold our monthly business meeting, during which many aspects of the operation of the department were covered, including financials, equipment, training and fundraising activities. We will be starting up our monthly breakfasts again on November 8th. Social distancing, sanitizing, and occupancy limits will all be enforced. ... Also, as we are getting into cooler weather, have you had your chimney cleaned? It is critical to safe operation of your wood burning appliance to make sure the chimney is cleaned annually. Chimney fires are common as wood burning appliances are started back up and the creosote has solidified over the course of the summer heat.

We have had no calls this week, and no training took place on Monday due to the Thanksgiving long weekend. Hope everyone had a safe and happy Thanksgiving long weekend!