 CRESCENT
BEACH / OCEAN PARK
Volunteer Fire Department
The Fire Department started in Crescent Beach in 1947. It had an elected
Fire Chief but no appointed firemen. If there was a fire, it was the chiefs
responsibility to get the truck to the scene and hope anyone available
would turn up. This operation was financed by the taxpayers within the
general area. The governing body was designed as 'the ratepayers association',
sometimes causing conflicts because the Fire
Department was responsible for three ratepayers associations' districts.
In November 1951, a house fire burned to death a woman and her two sons.
Colin McFadden became the Fire Chief. He wanted to train a group of 16
firefighters but could only find three, so he went to the high school
and recruited 12 high school kids - Derek Uren was one.
In 1954, work commenced on the 128th Street Fire Hall but it wasn't completed
until Nov. 1958. Volunteers paid for most of it and built it themselves.
Assessed at $50,000 and cost the firemen $10,000.
One of the benefits of Derek Uren's involvement with the Fire Department
was that the Uren household was one of the first to have a phone installed
- in the mid '50s. The Fire Chief wrote a letter to the appropriate authorities
to get the phone installed.
Derek retired from the department in 1994 after 42 years of
service. Nineteen of those years Derek was the Deputy Chief.
Aubrey Stevens joined the department in 1947 and served as Fire Chief
for eight years (1954 - 1962). His resourcefulness and imagination was
responsible for the building of the present firehall.
Norm Smith joined the Fire Department in 1952. He served for 19
years as the Fire Chief, from 1962 to his retirement in 1981.
Bob Haining served the department for 21 years and was Fire Chief from
1982-1991. Other Fire Chiefs were: John VanNuland, 19921993; Bryce Thompson,
1994 - 1996; Don Pickerill, 1997 - 1998.
Ian MacMillan is the present day Fire Chief, becoming Chief in
1998. Ian joined the Fire Hall in 1980.
Today there are 25 volunteers in the department.
- Rob and Lois Allanson, Anne HelPs, Bob Haining
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