麻豆传媒AV

Paynton Volunteer Fire Fighters and guests enjoyed a night out on New Year's Eve.

At this year's Fireman's Ball in Paynton, guests were entertained by musical act Prairie Rider from Edmonton, Alta. The crowd enjoyed a great meal cooked and donated by three very generous residents in Paynton. Between the donations and silent auction, the small community raised a few dollars for the department to afford what cannot always be purchased within the annual budget.

Offering a designated driver program, PVFD wanted to make sure everyone got home safe. Being on the border of our time zone, midnight was celebrated twice before the silent auction finished up and all door prizes were handed out for the night.

Sixteen men and women volunteer on this department ranging from 19 years old to mid-50s and are all at different levels of experience. Not including the on-call hours, collectively 820.5 hours were spent responding, training, maintaining equipment/trucks and practicing for the next call from dispatch.

Paynton's firefighters are looking forward to the SVFFA spring fire school in Humboldt this coming April. This will be the fourth fire school the members have attended. Departments from all over the province send firefighters twice annually to either start their education or to add specialty skills and sometimes just to brush up. Although fire may not change, the building materials/techniques, vehicle technology and household items do. Fires burn hotter and faster than 50 years ago and standards are constantly changing, so it is very important that firefighters have the most current information and training.

New members are always welcome to the department as Paynton is a bedroom community. Most men on the team are working in the oilfield, therefore they are not usually around during the day. Mostly women and the odd guy with a day off pick up the daytime slack but there is always room for more volunteers.