The community of Riske Creek is working to establish their own volunteer fire department.
Mike Elvin says they have had a lot of safety clothing donated by the departments from McLeese Lake and the West Fraser Quesnel division.
“The whole objective here is just to make the whole community a lot safer. We do have some firefighting situations out west of us, but I want to get everything more centralized for the whole community area and we can be of assistance to RCMP, with traffic, with a structural building, and just developing a very safe, efficient crew,” he says.
“So basically I’m just putting my both feet forward to take us to a different level.”
Elvin says as of today, they have 12 volunteers which is a really good number.
He adds that they were called the Riske Creek Rebels after staying behind to save their community from the 2017 wildfires.
“The last truck that was pulling out of Riske Creek, he pulled up the driveway and said I need your next of kin information because you’re all going to burn and die tonight, and I told him we’re all going to stay and fight,” Melvin says.
“After he took down our next of kin information he said dam it all up and down this highway, at Riske Creek you’re nothing but rebels-Riske Creek Rebels every single one of you. We all stayed and we saved the entire community in 2017 so it proves that if you got a small, efficient crew you can save your community.”
Riske Creek is located approximately 46 km west of Williams Lake. Elvin says they still need more startup gear such as pumps and hoses, and that the more equipment they can obtain the more efficient they can become.
“I’ve got the old Riske Creek school house which is right on the highway here, and opening up a portion of that which is going to give us our actual hall and meeting area,” he says.
“We’ve already got that up and I’ve already got that in place so there’s quite a bit happening. It’s just hoping that some of the other fire departments can come forward and give us a hand a little bit more and get us a little bit closer to our goal.”