Cluculz Lake Volunter Fire Dept. Says We Will Try Again

By 250 News

Cluculz Lake, B.C. - The Cluculz Lake Volunteer Fire Department says rather than accept defeat in the referendum held Saturday in Cluculz Lake it will continue to try and improve fire protection in the area.

The Saturday vote  resulted in 93 voting in favour to expand rural fire services and 115 voting against, defeating the proposal.

The CLVFD has operated three trucks on a budget of $15,000 dollars per year since 1998. The executive committee says with the current level of funding "Our trucks and safety equipment are not adequate and are not up to WorkSafe BC standards."

Deputy Fire Chief Gail Poisson says they are not about to  give up  "We will be revisiting and updating our proposal with the idea of possibly adding two additional fire halls, instead of one, with a stipulation that volunteers are in place before construction begins."  She adds "We will begin re-working our proposal hoping to obtain approval from the home owners in the area."

At issue for many of the voters was the matter of cost, the upgrades would have meant each property owner would see their tax bill jump from 11 cents per thousand, to 85 cents per thousand of assessment.

Members of the executive of the volunteer fire department  point out there would have  have been a trade off in costs.  They point to one case  where a home owner would be paying $ 703.00 less in fire insurance while their taxes would have risen by $202.00.

"We found that a lot of people felt they would be out of the 8-and 10 kilometre catchment area to receive a cheaper insurance rate" said Poisson  "We are trying to fix that by having an additional two halls."

A number of people say that homeowners have been saying they are in inside the 10 kilometre range when they are not and the matter of whether they would even qualify for insurance in the event of a fire is not known.

A property assed at $200,000 dollars would have gone up from $22.00 to $170.00 and the executive of the Volunteer Fire department say  much of that increase would have been off set with cheaper insurance.

Two serious fires  at Cluculz Lake this   past summer  levelled the cabins.    The  proposal  put  forth to  voters would have  seen an upgrade in equipment and the addition of a new hall for better response times.  It  also  would have  provided funding for training.

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