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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2015
DELLA MALLETTE Grand Forks Gazette
North Fork residents will see their fire insurance skyrocket if volunteer firefighters don’t come forward. This from Grand Forks Fire/Rescue Fire Chief Dale Heriot as he spoke to about 50 North Fork residents at the George Evans Fire Hall on Tuesday, Nov. 10. He was accompanied by Regional District of Kootenay Boundary (RDKB) CAO John McLean, Area D/Rural Grand Forks Director Roly Russell, Deputy Fire Chief Kevin McKinnon, Assistant Chief Manfred Bialon and several of the volunteer firefighters. Fire halls are required to have 15 volunteers, but the George Evans Fire Hall is considered a satellite of the downtown fire hall and can therefore operate with 10 volunteers to maintain its Level 4 rating (“semi-protected”). Once numbers fall below 10, the Fire Underwriters Survey (FUS) will step in and the rating will fall to a 5, creating an “unprotected” status and affecting insurance rates.
Remembering those we lost Harry Reed, Grand Forks branch Legion president from 2004-06, places a wreath at the Cenotaph in remembrance of local World War II veterans. The Remembrance Day ceremony was attended by an estimated 200 people. See also page 19. Craig Lindsay photo
The FUS considers the distance to the nearest fire hall, so residents living north of about the eight-kilometre mark would be impacted; residents living closer to town are deemed to be protected from the downtown fire hall. The North Fork hall now has three volun-
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Fire Chief Dale Heriot addresses a group of about 50 North Fork residents Tuesday, Nov. 10.
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North Fork fire insurance rates could skyrocket
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teer firefighters. The role of the FUS is important to homeowners: it provides data on public fire protection for insurance companies, representing about 85 per centof the private sector property and casualty insurers in Canada. “FUS conducts field surveys of the fire risks and fire defences maintained in built-up communities and uses these results to establish the Public Fire Protection Classification [PFPC] for each community,” Heriot explained. “PFPC is used to establish the Dwelling Protection Grade, which is used to set residential fire insurance rates.” For example, average rates for a $300,000 North Fork home are $1,310 at the current semi-protected rating. Rates will rise to $3,290 if the rating drops to unprotected. Firefighters and their families spoke up at the meeting about the many benefits to joining the department, highest among them the camaraderie that’s found in the “family” that is the fire department. “The firefighters in this valley are very much a family,” said Deb Billwiller, wife of one of the three volunteers of the George Evans Fire Hall. Although it is a volunteer fire department, members do receive a stipend based on their attendance at calls and practices. The department also provides life insurance, extended health and dental, and on-the-job disability
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