The Williams Lake Fire Department has set another record year of call-outs, with the previous being from 2022.
2022 had a total of 439 calls, and has now been broken by this years 460, which is roughly a 4.8 percent increase.
Fire Chief Evan Dean said in an email response that “The majority of our calls were for smaller fires such as burning complaints, campfires, item fires, and dumpster fires, and of course alarm calls.” says Dean.
Dean added that the department saved multiple structures this year including Boston Pizza, Columneetza, and the Hamilton Hotel, as well as supporting their Mutual-Aid partners in Wildwood and 150 Mile on a number of structure fires.
Over the holiday season between December 23rd and January 2nd, they attended 20 calls.
The department also helped the community leading up to Christmas by taking part in two food drives, and helped serve lunch at the Salvation Army.
Dean said “These paid on-call individuals continue to leave their families and work at critical times to aid our fellow community members. I couldn’t be more proud.”