The Faust Volunteer Fire Department: in the front row, left-right, are deputy fire chief Robert Nygaard, Violet Campiou, Donna Dalke, Robert Dalke, Mike Zatorski, George Baker, training officer Ken MacEachern and Lloyd Marshall. In the back row, left-right, are Kallen MacEachern, Jordan MacEachern and Chris Brown. Missing in the photo are assistant deputy fire chief Wally Garrick, safety officer Dawn Garrick and Glenn Quick.

Richard Froese
South Peace News

The Faust Volunteer Fire Department has had few but vital responses during the year.

“It’s been a fairly quiet year and we haven’t had any fires,” deputy chief Robert Nygaard says.

“We had two calls with the new rescue boat.”

Faust firefighters utilized the new all-terrain rescue craft to rescue two boaters on Lesser Slave Lake in August amidst smoke from B.C. wildfires.

“Two men were in a small boat and they got disoriented in the smoke,” says Lloyd Marshall.

“They ran out of gas and the lake was extremely choppy.”

The bay was weedy and rescuers were easily able to access the area with the rescue boat.

“Then we found them in the bay in the smoke and we brought them out of the weeds,” says George Baker.

Crews from the Kinuso Volunteer Fire Department used their 20-foot boat to tow the pair back to the Spruce Point Park boat launch.

Big Lakes County purchased the boat in the spring 2016 and it is stored in the Faust Fire Hall.

“The boat performs very well in rough water,” Nygaard says.

“Without the boat, we couldn’t get into the weeds to get them.”

Members on the rescue team were able to locate the lost men using a strong radar viewer, Nygaard says.

The boat was also used to search on the lake for a 50-year-old fisherman who went missing. Police recovered the body of the victim on Aug. 9.

Faust firefighters responded to assist in motor vehicle collisions along Highway 2 at Oldman Creek Bridge, and a two-vehicle collision at Driftpile.

Currently, the department has 14 members. Nygaard always welcomes more.

The Faust department meets the second and final Thursday of each month at 7:30 p.m.

For more information, phone Nygaard at [780] 355-2735 or cell at [780] 523-8391.