\ie Page 6 July 1981 Cassiar Courier SHIRESRIGHTERISMIRANINGECOURSE This is a series showing haw a fully involved, second stage fire can be fought with a minimum amount of water and time. This series of pictures covers a 20 to 30 second period of firefighting. The last picture shows large vol- umes of steam which extinguished the fire. Pictures by Ciro and Katie . Tony Evans and Bruce Hall Instructing Cassiar Volunteer Fire Department recently held a 3-day training course — the first training course ever held for this department since it began over 20 years ago This 3 day In Field Training Course is put on by the. Fire Academy and is funded jointly by the Attorney Gen- eral’s Department and the Fire Commissioner. The pro- grams, which were set up by Tony Evans, began in Jan- uary 1981 andthe course in Cassiar was conducted by Tony Evans, Program Director, and Bruce Hall, Instructor, Volunteer Training Programs, Fire Academy. The training programs reach approximately 260 volunteer fire depart- ments in B.C. — about 6, 120 volunteer firefighters. There are two in- -field courses designed for the volun- teer fire departments. — one for new fire departments and a continuous training one for established fire departments. Because Cassiar firemen have never had any formal train- ing, the basic one for new fire departments was offered. The majority of the time Mr. Evans and Mr. Hall travel in a van completely equipped with all the training aids but because of the distance involved, this was not: possible in Cassiar. In addition to travelling to.all areas in B.C. putting on these two courses, they also put on regional weekend seminars and courses for volunteer fire chiefs and officers in Vancouver. These are run in three phases — 1. Administration 2. Practical Theory (doing, in the Ceo the cys... theory and‘direction of firefighting) ©: ve _... 3. Phases,1,.& wee al cal actual. firetghting and direction: ; ean Very Since these courses began | in n Vancouver five of Cassiar’s firemen have attended. Mr. Evans stated that the Cassiar turnout was 100%, the enthusiasm super and the ability very good. The fire- men did excellent in every phase and with practice Cassiar can be very proud of their Volunteer Fire Department. Volunteer firemen are a special breed of people — they give many hours of their time to protect the lives and property of people in their community. Without volunteer firemen the insurance rates on property would be incred- ibly high and in many areas there would be little or no fire protection because of the exorbitant. costs of a paid fire department. Mr. Evans stated that one more instructor will be added in September and possibly two more in April. This will enable’them’ ‘to offer more infield training courses throughout B.C. and also they will increase the courses for volunteer fire chiefs and officers in Vancouver to seven in 1982. The three days of training included fire behavior, breathing apparatus, search and rescue, ventilation, lad- der practice, utilization of water supplies and hose pract- ices. The topics: and practices were then all utilized in the Friday afternoon fire at 253 Drybrough. During the training session, emphasis was put on safety and minimizing damage. Fully involved house fires, with direct and indirect method of firefighting, have been knocked down in Jess than a minute with the proper application of 60 gallons of water. Comments of some of the firefighters who took the course — D.Pewsey — ‘‘Excellent! Sure has opened our eyes up as to what can be achieved if one has an efficient fire de- partment. B. Clark — “It was an excellent training course. It was very interesting, educational and enjoyable and changed the perspective of the whole department towards fire- fighting.” R. Borsato — “Long ee new methods.” D. Tripp — ‘This training course will prove to be invalu- able to the operation of the Cassiar Volunteer Fire Department”. It taught us some great Controlling exposures near. buildings, propane and fuel tanks, etc. Fire was relit several times to stress all facets of fire- fighting techniques. as amc Ve ee NORTHERN LIGHTS COLLEGE An open board meeting of Northern Lights College was held in Cassiar on Saturday 6th June. No one from the Cassiar community attended. Thirteen people were present:- school district board mem- bers — Abe Unruh, Gordon Adlard and Sherry Sethan; gov ernment appointed board members — Yvonne Dixon, John Woronuk, Janet Edwards and Charlie Lasser; Fort Nelson campus principal — Al Walker; Fort St. John cam- pus principal — Margaret Cleavley; Chief Executive Officer Northern Lights College — Jim Kassen; Dean of administ- ration — Ted Byng; Registrar — Wayne Hilmo and College Board secretary Phyllis Johnson. The members meet in a different community each month to enable them to become aware of each district's needs so they will not focus only on the aspects of the larger areas such as Dawson Creek, Chetwynd and Fort St. John. This was the first time the Board has met in Cassiar. The members felt the visit to Cassiar enabled them to assess many aspects | of the community; - the number, of people living in the area, how: people live, whether it i is. a transient or non-transient community, the problems of isolation, the type of students present and what courses are needed — such as vocational and.community enrichment courses. The board members indicated that they felt they would now be able to interpret the needs of this area to the Min- istry of Education and also evaluate the impact that the mining industry and B.C. Hydro have on the district. It is difficult to imagine how, on sucha short visit, ( less than 24 hours ) the members were able to assess all the -needs and other aspects of the region, especially as most of the time spent here was in the board meeting. The board members feel the visit also benefits program- ming for the College which is done one year in advance. The Program Chairman, Sheila Walker, made a visit to Cas- siar the following week ( see report on page 17 ) Mr. Jim Kassen stated that funding for all rural programm-. ers for Northern Lights College, except for Cassiar and At- lin, had been eliminated this year due to budget cuts. Erickson Creek Column — = — — by Pat Beaton Pras ~ See (ge Sun’s Up! Our short northern summer is in full swing so there’s lots of activity around Erickson these days. First, we have something to crow about. The Erickson. Gold Mine three man first aid team came home with the trophy after winning our division in the Central Region Underground and Open Pit Mine Rescue and First Aid Competition held in Nanaimo May 30th. Team members were Captain Jim Bondesen, Brian Mercer, Tom Williams, and Coach Joe Hebert. This is the first time Erickson has entered a team. in the competitions. Other teams in our division came from. Western Mines, Craigmont and Boss Mountain. The three man competition is open to holders of St. John’s Ambulance first aid certificates and coach Joe Hebert said its purpose is ‘to maintain a high standard a Cassiar Courier July, 1981.Page 7 Board Meeting in Cassiar | The Board expressed extreme concern about the cost of low enrolment courses for the whole of Northern Lights College. Nevertheless low enrolment is often related to providing an extra service to students such as for music courses. Enrolment for science courses in general have been low across the Province. There are plans to step up programs for recruiting and ad- vertising of courses, and fee structures for all courses were reviewed in the meeting. A discussion of courses actually being offered was held — in particular University courses being offered by the College versus vocational courses. The Northern Lights College Board investigated the poss- ibility of hiring a Fund Raiser to raise money for the Col- lege such as for the Northern Institute Conference, for per forming artists travel expenses, for public workshops and to apply for government grants. Also, whether a commun- ify resource person is needed part time and which com- munity projects are needed in specific communities. ; Canadian ‘content in Institutional programming and train- ing was briefly outlined by Mr: Gordon:Adlard who atten. An air brake course has been completed in Iskut. There is now sufficient funding for additional air brake courses for Iskut- and it is hoped that courses may also be offered at Dease Lake and Telegraph Creek. The Iskut course was expensive to operate,due to the movement of equipment for the air brakes course. A small CAT program is also- planned for Iskut. KNOWLEDGE NETWORK OF THE WEST Mr Wayne Hilmo outlined the developments regarding Knowledge Network of the West ( K.N.O.W.) Northern Lights actually receive the network in four areas and it will be available to Cassiar in the Jate fall of this year- Operating support and capital grants are being made av- ailable through a new “Program for Education and Enter- tainment Television Service’ known as PEETS. . The Ministry of Universities, Science and Communications has established PEETS to assist communities of up to 2,500 people in size who wish to receive the program sig- nal from the Knowledge Network. ded, the, Association. of; Canadian-Community Colleges — ATE PEETS grant would Cava ‘the entivé: Pepa cost dfan Canadian Vocational Association conference ( A.C.C.C. — C.V.A. ) on ‘Keystones, people and community.’ The Board spoke on developments in each district. Ad- vance work has been done at Tumbler Ridge and the Col- lege hopes to be on stream there by the spring of 1983. Fort Nelson has set up courses which are related to the pipeline. Mr. Al Walker reported that 45 courses were held between April and June in the Fort Nelson, Atlin, Cassiar ~ and Iskut area and approximately 500 students were en- rolled. MOBILE UNIT UNDERWAY ? Mr Jim Kassen. stated that a. mobile unit is. now available. The College purchased. a bus, from the. School District and they hope it will be operating by the spring of 1982. It is hoped that a variety of courses will be offered from the mobile unit. With the installation of electrical outlets sec- retarial courses could be run from the unit. There’s also the possibility of.having a shop module in it and running electrical programs. of first aid in the industry throughout the province’’. _ The trophy is on display in the mine office. While the greenhouses in camp are sprouting new plants and the wild flowers on Table Mountain are coming into bloom, we have a.special kind of ‘‘new life’’ to celebrate. Congratulations to Steve and Joy Wuschke on the birth of their first child, Julia Joy, born May 4th in Cranbrook. Steve is the E.G.M. mine engineer. Summer means summer students. Welcome to Brandon McShane of Moncton, N.B., Mark Price of Cache Creek, B.C., Graham Luke of London, Ont., and Jim Glover of Kingston, Ont. Welcome also to our new mining eng- ineer, Tom McGrail and draftsman Francis Rankin, both of Nova Scotia, and.to surveyor Mark Bondesen of Vic- toria. Our brand new camp has been installed and it really changes the look of our little settlement. The men are al- ready in the bunkhouse and by publishing time,our kit- chen will be in operation. Our cook, Julie Ossington, has been anxiously awaiting the new facility which is more than double the size of Our old, worn out kitchen. That’s all for this month. Happy Summer! earth terminal including dish antenna, Low Noise Amplif- iers ( L.N.A.), receiver and cables. PEETS will also pay the entire capital cost of establishing a low power television transmitter to broadcast the Knowledge Network signal. Mr Hilmo said that Cassiar qualifies for the financing of the dish and it would be installed by September. Finance is also available for a rebroadcast transmitter which has a “range of 25 miles. Northern Lights’ College is willing to put in more than one dish for the district and would rent a facility for the receivers and hire one part time Dabo for maintenance of the operation. Additional channels.(C.B.C., B.C.T.V., which are available on Anik B) would require local funding although the Min- istry may share up to 1/3 of those added costs through it’s Communications Grant Program. OPEN LEARNING INSTITUTE The Northern Lights College are negotiating with the Open Learning Institute regarding working together to pre- sent courses in the Cassiar Area. On Tuesday, June 3 the Bridge Club held the wind-up social of the 1980-81 season. Prizes were awarded for the average over the season and they were won by : High Lady Marvel Nitti High Man Kelly McPhail i Low Lady Ray Tracey Low Man Jay Lee The travelling prize for the evening (a bottle of Kahlua) was won by Glen Weisenberger. Glen also won the bottle. - of wine for high score of the evening. The ladies once again provided a beautiful lunch while the Bridge Club supplied the liquid refreshments. All prizes were donated by Marvel Travel. S la The social brought to an end a very successful season with many. new faces. The new season begins on Tuesday, September 8. The Club will then. continue to meet every Tuesday evening at 7:30 at: the \Upper Leisure Room. Admission is $1.50 which offsets the cost of refreshments. All bridge players, beginners and experienced, are wel- come to join the club. rn