Whycocomagh firefighters investing in trail safety

October 24, 2025

As the Whycocomagh Volunteer Fire Department prepares to celebrate its 75th anniversary next year, chief Shawn Harrison says responding to calls on the local trails system has led the department to add new equipment.

In the past year, a side-by-side was leased, after a snowmobiler was involved in an accident on the trails near the fire hall. Harrison says his department was lucky the trail was groomed, so they were able to reach the victim using their medical truck, so they could get him to where he could be taken to hospital by Emergency Health Services (EHS).

He noted that the department has added high angle rope rescue equipment following another incident in which a snowmobiler went over a 60-foot embankment.

The 19-member force serves between 2,500 and 3,000 residents from the Little Narrows turnoff on the Trans Canada Highway, out to Skye Glen, into West Lake Ainslie and Orangedale as far as Portage Road. It responds to an average of 45 calls a year, and most of those are medical.

Harrison, who has served as chief since 2015 and has been on the department for 17 years says, they’re doing fewer medical calls now because they don’t often have volunteers available during the day.

“We used to be full-fledged MFRs (medical first responders) and we’d get a call for everything,” he recalls. “You want more than two MFRs if you’re going to a call. With people not available, we’re there to help EHS if needed.”

He says six members joined in the past year and a half, but he added they’d really like to get membership up to around 25.

“We’re not the only department with that challenge,” Harrison explains. “It’s a big time commitment for training and fundraising. The members are getting older and it’s getting harder to get young people in.”

He adds, “when people join, I tell them you can do whatever you’re comfortable with. If we’re at a scene, we need people at the trucks to get equipment. They don’t have to be right in the middle of it. We don’t force people to do things they’re not comfortable with.”

Despite the department’s smaller size, Harrison says members are good to turn out for calls, adding they have a good relationship with the nearby We’koqma’q department and can often call on them when assistance is required.

The Whycocomagh department was incorporated in January 1951 with John Allen Waters as its first chief and Charles MacMillan as deputy chief. The first fire hall was built between 1963 and 1964, and its first major equipment acquisition came in 1968 when it purchased a 300-gallon tanker.

The department moved into its current hall in 2010 and was able to pay it off six years later thanks to the local community, which supports its many fundraisers. Harrison says he hopes to see the department’s main pumper truck—which was purchased last year—be paid off this year. That truck which includes That truck, which includes a 1,500-gallon tank, had a price tag of $572,000.

He says the majority of the department’s yearly revenue comes from taxes levied by the municipality, but he says proceeds from the weekly Nova Scotia Firefighters 50/50 draw, the largest draw of its kind in Canada, make up nearly a third of that revenue.

Harrison says generous donations from community members and other fundraisers undertaken by the department make up the remainder, including a twice monthly darts night launched last winter, an annual Daytona 500 event, and a WestJet draw in which the winner takes home a trip for two anywhere in Canada.

Harrison is assisted by two deputy chiefs, Dale MacAulay and Jordan MacRitchie, who is also SCBA (self contained breathing apparatus) captain. Other leading roles are filled by Jamie MacInnis (training officer), Derek MacInnis (truck captain), Sherryl Harrison (secretary), Nancy Turbill (MFR captain), Andrew Tubman (extrication captain), Ken Hunter (hose captain), and Jennifer MacInnis (communication captain). Rounding out the membership are Jamie Sutherland, Lisa Harrison, Jordan Keeling, Robbie MacLean, Greg Jones, John Lewis MacKeigan, Matt Brosens, Curtis van den Heuvel and Zach Simpson.