Ocean Man First Nation receives first pumper truck

An old fire truck is being given a new life on the Ocean Man First Nation.

The truck — a 1973 International/Thibault 625-gallon-per-minute pumper — had been sitting unused at the Kamsack Fire Department for a few years.

Firefighters Without Borders Canada heard the Ocean Man First Nation was trying to buy a pumper truck, so the organization stepped in to set up a donation of the truck. It was picked up by the First Nation.

“We were the only First Nation with our tribal council without a fire truck so they selected us. We’re the smallest First Nation with our tribal council. It was a nice surprise and very appreciated,” said Ocean Man First Nation Chief Connie Big Eagle.

She said the community previously purchased firefighting services from the town of Stoughton and the Rural Municipality of Tecumseh.

She said over the past few months, volunteers have been getting trained to handle emergency situations by a co-ordinator from the Yorkton Tribal Council. They have found protective equipment, shovels and other things to help suit up the volunteers.

Big Eagle said the pumper will help them be prepared in case something unexpected comes up.

“Living in Saskatchewan, we will have the odd prairie fire, we have a garbage pit that can get away from us sometimes and we want to protect our community buildings and our neighbours so we felt that it was a good thing to have people who are trained,” Big Eagle said.

“Even when it isn’t an emergency, we will have it for controlled burning and have it on site. When we have to burn our garbage pit, we can have it on site. We’ll be able to help ourselves and get out there quicker while we’re hopefully waiting for backup.”

The new pump truck will also find a home inside the fire hall on the Ocean Man First Nation. The hall was built in the 1990s but has yet to have a fire truck parked inside it.

“It was one of the first buildings that we built when we moved back to Ocean Man. Because we didn’t have a fire truck to house within the fire hall, that building was used as a classroom. It’s currently being used as an exercise weight room so now we can use it for what it was meant for,” Big Eagle said.

The Ocean Man First Nation is about 75 kilometres north of Estevan.