Oyster River Volunteer Fire Rescue held their 2016 Annual Awards Banquet on Jan. 21 to honour the firefighters and celebrate their achievements from the past year.
Fire Chief Bruce Green began the awards presentation by honouring firefighter Doug Taylor with his 25 year, Provincial Long Service medal.
Strathcona Regional District Area D Director, Brenda Leigh was happy to present Firefighter Level 2 certificates to Alana Alix, Len Apedaile, Julia Blake, Jeff Caring, Chris Chambers, Heidi Fuerste, Jason Gagne, Brian Hiebert, Roger Horobrtz, Chris Hounsell, Neil McCredie and Amanda Voeltz.
Edwin Grieve, Area C Director from the Comox Valley Regional District, was delighted to present Fire Officer 1 certificates to Dave Carmichael, Ron Schulz and Karl Neufeld.
To conclude the awards portion of the evening, Deputy Chief Chris Murray presented firefighter Heidi Fuerste with the Rookie of the Year award and Fire Chief Bruce Green and Brittany Caring (granddaughter of Bill Carnie) presented firefighter Julia Blake with the Bill Carnie Memorial Firefighter of the Year trophy.
Oyster River Fire Rescue responded to 284 calls for service last year and the members volunteered over 7,500 hours. Fire Chief Bruce Green is proud to say that the firefighters are a very professional and dedicated group of volunteers.