Georgian College's firefighter training program has added a second vehicle to its roster, thanks to the Town of Wasaga Beach. On Dec. 1, the department drove its recently retired pumper down to the college's firefighter training station in Springwater Township and turned the keys over to Georgian's program lead Robert Wilson.
Wilson said getting the truck means the students can have access to a vital piece of training equipment.
“We teach our students how to pump, how to use hose lines, basically, how to fight fires, and without a pumper we can’t give them that knowledge. A pumper to us is really important to our program and our kids,” he said.
The program currently has an older pumper donated to the program by the Town of Midland’s fire department. That pumper will still be used by the program, Wilson said.
“A new truck is something that we can rely on for several years to come to teach these kids the techniques of firefighting,” he said.
The firefighting course at Georgian is a three-semester program that currently has 50 students and covers ice water rescue, auto extrication, handling hazardous material, as well as live fire fighting.
“A lot of our students are getting on volunteer fire services, which is great because we need volunteer firefighters, and it gives (the students) the training to keep up with the standards for when they apply to full-time services,” Wilson said.
The pumper donated by Wasaga Beach is 27 years old. It was replaced with a new vehicle two years ago.
“You can do a number of things with a retired pumper: you can sell it, trade it in when purchase a new one, get scrap value depending on how rough a shape it’s in, or donate it,” said Wasaga Beach fire chief Mike McWilliam. “We looked at what we could get on a trade-in, and the company really didn’t want it as a trade-in.”