New fire chief looking for more recruits

Olds Fire Department (OFD) is looking for more volunteers.

And they don't have to fit the stereotypes of decades past, such as big, tall guys, according Mike Hoffman, the department's new fire chief.

There are a couple of women in the department and Hoffman is hoping to attract more, as well as other residents such as new Canadians.

"We do have the physicality requirements of the job so we'd certainly want somebody to meet those, and we do have an internal test that we do put candidates through," he says.

"But as long as people are meeting those physical requirements and they're healthy then certainly we would give them the training and give them a pager and invite them to come along on our journey."

Hoffman says the biggest challenge is finding people to be available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

When interviewed by the Albertan, Hoffman was not sure exactly how many people volunteer for the department but he guesses about 35.

He's not sure how many more volunteers they can take, but figures likely at least a couple or a few more.

But Hoffman says it's "a balancing act," because he estimates it costs $4,000 to $7,000 to fully outfit and train each firefighter, so that has to fit within the department's budget set by the Town of Olds.

Hoffman has now been at OFD for nearly two months. He replaced Lorne Thompson, who served in that role for 13 years before he and the town parted ways this past spring.

He says he was attracted to the post in Olds by the fact it's in a small town. He and his wife Lila, an educational therapist, like the atmosphere of small communities.

"You're at the post office and people know you by name and you have those conversations in the morning over a cup of coffee," he says.

"That was something my wife and I really enjoyed early on and that's certainly something we really wanted to get back to and then that was the opportunity that presented itself here in Olds. It really felt that way when I visited here and did my interview."

Hoffman is impressed by OFD's professionalism, especially given the fact it is a volunteer department.

"Great equipment, beautiful building, excellent staff, a very dedicated core of volunteers. I mean, these people give you the shirt off their back," he says.

"When they go out the door when the alarm rings, they're doing all the things that I would expect a professional career fire department to do," Hoffman adds.

"They've got an officer on the truck. That officer is putting a command presence to the incident and taking control and care of that incident when they arrive on-scene.

"They're doing that consistently, they're doing that very safely and so it's made me very proud as the incoming chief."

Hoffman says there's a strong sense of pride and dedication at OFD.

"All you have to do is walk around this fire station and you're going to just ñ without even talking to the people, you're going to get a sense of the pride and the ownership," he says.

"We have three big words up on our big I beam that runs across the apparatus floor there and they are ëcommitment, pride and teamwork.'

"And our people personify those. Those aren't just empty words to our folks. It's what they mean; it's what they believe; it's how they live. And it was so good to come into this environment and feel that the guys had it under control."

Hoffman says he was "a bit nervous" coming into the department after the departure of Thompson, but he says it's a "two-way street," because some OFD members were unsure about him too "so we're still in that kind of honeymoon phase where we're figuring that out."

"I'm not here to say that I'm God's gift to the fire service. Certainly I'm a human being. I'm going to be as fallible as the next person," Hoffman says.

"But it's about taking ownership. And that's one of the things I've hopefully done walking into this organization; to give them reassurances that I have ownership of this no different than they do; that I will honour the commitment, the pride and the teamwork aspects.

"And I will do everything in my power as their new chief to make sure that we honour those words, that we live up to them and that we look for opportunities to move this fire department into the future."

Before coming here, Hoffman worked in Lethbridge. Lila is still there. They're trying to sell their home in that community. As soon as that happens, she'll join him here.