This year’s recipient of the Group of the Year award as part of Outlook’s Community Appreciation Awards is a supremely dedicated group of volunteers who are the first on the scene in the event of a major emergency.
It goes without saying that the Outlook Fire Department is more than deserving of such an accolade. The crew of 19 had a ridiculously busy 2017 that saw them on the scene for a laundry list of fires, crashes and other emergency events, and together with other departments at times have kept further disaster at bay and put in some eye-popping hours in order to do so.
Fire chief Dalas King says he and the crew were surprised that the department could even get on the list of potential nominees for the award.
“It’s really great to be named Group of the Year,” he said. “It goes to show that we’re recognized and noticed in the community, so it’s pretty cool. I didn’t even think that we were nominated for one, and I didn’t really expect to get it for sure. The department had no idea, and that was really the biggest thing; we didn’t even know that we were able to be nominated for something like that, so they’re pretty pumped up for it.”
The past year saw a record number of calls for the Outlook fire crew, putting them in the local history books since the creation of the department.
“I can’t really tell you how many exact calls it was, but I believe it worked out to a little over 100 calls,” he said. “That’s definitely the busiest on record for the Outlook Fire Department since its existence.”
A mere handful of those calls are from incidents that people in Outlook and the surrounding region will remember for quite some time:
Martens Farm House Fire: In the early morning hours of January 20, a fire broke out in the home of the Martens family on their farm located east of Broderick and near the junction of highways 15 and 219. The call to the scene was swift and the crew and other emergency personnel worked tirelessly to put out the flames, but the fire proved to be fatal as the blaze ended up claiming the life of 70-year old family patriarch Gordon Martens.
Downtown Outlook Flames: Not even two hours into Easter Monday on April 17, the department was called to the scene of a major blaze that ended up swallowing the old Outlook Electric building and the connecting office building. The fire crew worked tirelessly throughout the night and into the following afternoon to put out the flames, demolish what remained of the buildings, and clean up the wreckage.
Bale Blaze: Dry and warm conditions mixed with strong winds proved to be a dangerous combination on Friday, May 12 when a bale caught fire at the Elcan Forage plant by Broderick and quickly spread in the late afternoon hours. The Outlook crew worked with other dedicated departments to battle the flames, which finally became contained by the noon hour the following day. The tiny flickering flames were still visible for upwards of nearly a week in the aftermath.
When it comes to the Outlook fire crew, King says the department will always welcome new members if someone decides that they want to serve their community.
“We’re always looking for new members,” he said. “Someone who just has the will to want to help your community is what we’re looking for. It does take up a lot of time and a lot of training, but anybody can be a volunteer firefighter if they have the will.”
Thinking back to a call that made him especially proud of his crew and the skill they showed, King pointed to the downtown fire in Outlook from last April; an event that saw the department stretched out over the course of the day to take other calls.
“Probably the downtown fire,” he said. “That whole day resulted in three calls; we ended up running a shift of a little over 27 hours on 14 guys. Everything from the first entry teams with the fires to being shot and having to split out to go to grass fires, and then in the middle of all that stuff, having to go land STARS (air ambulance)! That was a pretty good day and the team pulled together really good. I can’t say enough about my team; they *make* the fire department, and I’m just a little piece of it, but they make my job so easy and it’s pretty awesome.”
A good chemistry between everyone on the crew and the ability to help people when they need it the most is what makes being a firefighter worth it.
“The comradery between all the guys is one thing,” said Dalas. “Helping people is the biggest thing, though. We see people when they’re at their lowest, and to try to give them some bit of help with that is probably the most gratifying thing.”
The Outlook Fire Department will be honored as the 2017 Group of the Year along with the Citizen, Business and Youth of the Year recipients at the Community Appreciation Awards banquet on Wednesday night, April 18 at the Outlook Civic Centre.
