Prince George, B.C. – The people who voluntarily put their lives on the line to try to save the homes and sometimes lives of those who live outside city limits from fire are getting together at Ness Lake this weekend to raise money for the local Brain Injury group.

Ray Trudel, a firefighter with the Ness Lake Volunteer Fire Department, says they’ve been hosting the annual Boot Hockey Tournament since 1981, although it has not been a consecutive string.  He says the guys and gals from five or six volunteer fire departments in the area get together for some fun and camaraderie and raise some money for a worthy cause.  "We raised $1600 last year," he says.  Funds have previously gone to burn victims.

So what is boot hockey?  Just what it implies says Trudel.  “We don’t wear skates, we wear our turnout gear, the gear that we use to fight a fire.  So we have to wear our helmets, our coats, our boots and coveralls, we’re all geared up and that way if we fall we don’t hurt ourselves!  We have a hockey stick and a rubber puck and the only person that really has padding is the goalies.  There’s no skates or cleats so you don’t exactly have the greatest grip on the ice but it makes everybody a little more equal.”  Games have three 5-minute periods so they’re only fifteen minutes long and it’s a round robin format.

Trudel says anyone who wants to is welcome to come and watch.  There will be a concession with coffee, hot chocolate, pop, burgers and hot dogs.  And he says longtime residents may well know of the rink.  You take a right off Ness Lake Road at the fire hall and go down Lakeside Drive beside Ness Lake Regional Park.  Trudel says “it’s one of the few rinks that you can go to and skate and play hockey without having to book a time.  We have volunteers who go out there and clear it all the time.  And it’s great because ice time is so primo in this town and every single rink is booked solid.”

Trudel says they’ll get going around 8:30 or 9 Saturday morning and play til about 3 in the afternoon.

But one final question.  What happens if there’s a fire in areas covered by any of the departments?  “Oh they have to go, they know that.  Actually any time volunteer firefighters go to any event or go to, say, a course, they must have a minimum four members stay in the area.  So they’ll have those four members on standby and immediately available and these guys, when the pager goes off, we know they’ve gotta go.  That’s just the way it is.”

It’s all volunteer, folks.  Trudel says anyone, including city residents with a summer cabin at the lake, is more than welcome to come out and support what these people are doing.