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  Proud Members of the International Association of Fire Fighters
 

In Honour

Brother when you weep for me
Remember that it was meant to be
Lay me down and when you leave
Remember I'll be at your sleeve
In every dark and choking hall
I'll be there as you slowly crawl
On every roof in driving snow
I'll hold your coat and you will know
In cellars hot with searing heat
At windows where a gate you meet
In closets where young children hide
You know I'll be there at your side
The house from which I now respond
Is overstaffed with heroes gone
Men who answered one last bell
Did the job and did it well
As firemen we understand
That death's card dealt in our hand
A card we hope we never play
But one we hold there anyway
That card is something we ignore
As we crawl across a weakened floor
For we know that we're the only prayer
For anyone that might be there
So remember as you wipe your tears
The joy I knew throughout the years
As I did the job I loved to do
I pray that thought will see you through

(author unknown)

Welcome to the Oak Bay Firefighters Union web site.

Please note that this site is under construction so some links may not work correctly at this time. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause and assure you it is temporary.

  • View a message from our President
  • View our recent Fire reports, If you have any images of fires that you would like to submit, please use this submission form to submit them, you will get full credit for supplying them to us.
  • We welcome you to Sign our guestbook if you have time to before you leave our website. Sorry about the spam protection on the guestbook but it is necessarry due to the spam.

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About The Event

New Website Launched

Posted on: 21 February, 2007 by admin

Hello, welcome and thanks for visiting the Oak Bay Professional Firefighters union Website.

This site has undergone a serious upgrade however we will still be adding all applicable material from the old site onto this new design as well as other great updates we will also be including.

This website is run by the Oak Bay Professional Firefighters Association, IAFF local 1856. It is 100% funded by our union and it does not in any way reflect the views or opinions of the Corporation of Oak Bay, its Fire Department or its Non union Senior Officers.


Oak Bay Fire Fighters Local 1856 members believe that community spirit comes through community involvement. Our Union does not solely contribute to Oak Bay as our community, we believe that all of British Columbia is and are active in charities throughout BC. Our goal is to assist in making British Columbia the safest Province for fire fighters both active and retired through union activities and canvassing of local governments.


A brief history about the fire department;
The Oak Bay Fire Department was formed in 1938 by the hiring of 11 members who worked more than 120 hours per week. Prior to this date, the City of Victoria was responsible for taking care of fires within Oak Bay. The department has grown over time to serve the community in which it protects in many ways and so too has our membership, with the formation, and evolution of our Union. Thanks to the forming of a union in 1969, members of the International Association of Fire Fighters (Local 1856) and affiliation with the British Columbia Fire Fighters Association, the work conditions and hours have greatly been improved.


The city of Oak Bay is approximately 5 square miles and has a population of 18,300+ residents. Our call volume is approximately 1,200 + annually.
Oak Bay is home to some of the most prestigious homes in the capital region. Located in the area called the "Uplands" are multi-million dollar waterfront homes which span the entire distance along Beach drive.
Beach Drive surrounds two thirds of our municipality. Houses' in these prestigious areas have an acre or more of property which is unusual for homes in a city location and are home to the elite, many TV, sports and music personalities. Oak Bay Professional Firefighters Union also protects the Uplands and Victoria Golf Courses', the Victoria Yacht Club and Oak Bay Marina. Our borders are form Harling Point (known as Chinese Cemetery) along Foul Bay road to the University of Victoria, intersecting the City of Victoria and Saanich Municipalities along the way.
Our 21 member local's call volume is averaged 1200 calls per year, and the response varies
from Fires, to MVA's and First Responders.

As mentioned earlier, Oak Bay Professional Fire Fighters Association are members both of the International Association of Fire Fighters, local 1856, and of the British Columbia Professional Fire Fighters Association.
Our IAFF affiliation was granted in 1969 and our membership is still 100% fulltime union today.

Throughout the year our union members actively participate in fund raising events for Burn Victims and their families through the BCPFFA Burn Fund. Union members volunteer to participate in both local and Canada wide Muscular Dystrophy campaigns. Closer to home we are active in supporting Santa's Anonymous, providing assistance and delivering 1200 Christmas Hampers. We fund-raise and provide bursaries to the local Oak Bay High School with our tree recycle. We educate school children in burn prevention and counsel both children and parents in Juvenile Fire Setters Intervention. We do all this with no remuneration of time or money from the District of Oak Bay or the Fire Department. All time given to each of these projects is donated by our members.
Recently we have expanded actively into Cops for Cancer fund raising, collecting thousands of dollars for Cancer Research, as well we participate in Camp Easter Seals 24 Hour Relay at University of Victoria's "Ring Road" with other municipal staff. For a complete list of our eventsclick here

It is through our compassion and love for our community that we perform these volunteer activities. It is our continuing way to thank the local community for giving us the opportunity to be Oak Bay Fire Fighters.

Please enjoy your visit on our new website. You may navigate through our site by the buttons on the left of this page. Occasionally on certain pages you will see a button to link you to pages not contained in the navigation area.



Please
sign our guestbook if you have the time, and do not hesitate to contact us for information, trading shirts, patches etc at any time.

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