Jim McBride has seen many firefighters walk in and out of the doors to his department in his 15 years on the job as part of the 亚洲天堂 Lake Fire and Rescue department.

McBride is 亚洲天堂 Lake's Fire Chief, among other job titles he holds with his job working for the municipality.

His department responds to various incidents, such as structural, wild land and vehicle fires, water and ice rescues, vehicle extrications, land search and rescues, carbon monoxide calls, fire alarm calls, as well as medical aid calls and a variety of others.

He has, including himself, enough safety equipment and the budget to staff up to 28 firefighters.

The catch, besides himself, his department is based entirely off of volunteer work from people in the community.

Volunteer fire departments are nothing new to communities in Northern B.C. where the vast majority of the fire departments work off of the commitment and hard work of its volunteers.

McBride knows of four, what he calls "career fire departments" in Northern B.C. the rest of the departments work of off volunteers.

The towns of Prince George, Kitimat, Terrace and Prince Rupert are the communities which have career fire departments.

With most departments being volunteer based it can leave many communities at a disadvantage when it comes to maintaining a standard of excellence, especially when it comes to education and training individuals to be firefighters.

All of the volunteers hold down everyday jobs, and the commitment to those jobs, along with their families can make getting new volunteers, and current volunteers, up to speed difficult.

However, McBride notes that he feels that the 亚洲天堂 Lake department is very fortunate when it comes to the commitment to the people on his roster.

"I'm very fortunate, and so is this community, to have the number of personal and the dedication of the personal that are involved. I've got a great crew next door from my deputy all the way down," McBride said.

His department is dedicated and takes the training to heart.

It starts with indoctrinating each individual telling him or her what the department expects from each person, as well as letting them know what the department has to offer.

"They're great," McBride said, of his firefighters, "it's the dedication for lack of a better word, and the enthusiasm for looking out for their neighbours."

Training is a three part process.

There鈥檚 basic training, which consists of eight to nine specific subjects, from safety, to ventilation, to learning about their protective equipment and to learning how to lay hoses, operate nozzles and carry water.

Basic training takes approximately nine months to complete, and once an individual has completed basic training they move on to levels one and two  training, which goes more in depth on the subjects covered in basic training and takes an additional four years.

Currently, there are six members of the 亚洲天堂 Lake department that are completing their level two training.

Throughout training, McBride stresses that safety is the primary focus for his firefighters.

"I can't afford to, nor can this community afford to have an injured firefighter," McBride said, "these people have job commitments, family commitments so my senior staff and I we are very cognizant of safety and not putting any of our members in harms way."

A volunteer will not be given a pager to respond to various calls until McBride and his senior training staff are comfortable with the education level of the certain individual.

That comfort level is hard to reach sometimes, specifically due to the high turnover rate that can be inflicted on volunteer based departments.

McBride has been fortunate, that he鈥檚 been able to steadily fill 25-26 positions, out of 28, on his roster the past four or five years, and retain many of the volunteers.

That is in stark contrast when he was down to 17 members.

"I don't have the magic formula, training and retention is a provincial wide and country wide problem," McBride said, "I mean it's not everyone鈥檚 cup of tea to put themselves in harms way."

No matter what his roster numbers are, though, McBride's primary concern is always for the safety of his members.

He has been in the fire service industry for 38 years now, and he has yet to have to make the phone call home and explain that someone's husband or wife, is in the hospital.

"Unfortunately accidents do happen and when you research how that accident happened or how this firefighter got injury you go back onto his training. Was he properly trained was she authorized to be in that position?"

"If something should ever happen to one our firefighters that's the questions that's going to be asked of me and our senior staff, but primarily of me. The buck stops at this desk I'm the one who's ultimately in charge," McBride said.

It all comes down to his senior staff.

"I have to compliment my senior staff because they recognize that they work in an industry where safety is first and foremost," McBride said, "we have an educational program run by one of my senior captains, Jason Blackwell. Training has always be a hard subject and Jason has undertaken that along with all my senior firefighters and deputy captains."