It felt like coming home when Nathan Pocock rolled up for his first shift as the first-ever paid fire chief of the East Sooke Fire Department this summer.
He was a volunteer firefighter between 2008 and 2011. When he married his wife in East Sooke, his training instructor Phil England drove them in the department’s antique pumper truck.
“Lots of ties here,” Pocock says. “There’s a brand new hall, but some of the people here are still the same and I’ve kept in touch with them. It’s fantastic to see those familiar faces.”
East Sooke is the smallest of four communities with mutual aid firefighting agreements in place – Sooke, Metchosin and Otter Point are the others. But in many ways, the fire chief’s position in this community of roughly 1,700 residents and businesses carries equal responsibility.
The biggest job on Pocock’s already overflowing list is overseeing ongoing firefighter training – finding people willing to work for free and spending hundreds of hours honing their skills. He estimates it takes up to three years to train a volunteer firefighter fully: that’s the average length of time volunteers stick around.
“I’m a big proponent of making sure everyone is being trained in something that I’m going to send them to,” he says. “These people are not only helping their community, they’re putting their trust in me to keep them safe and have them ready.”
A testament to their dedication is that many of the crew of 22 train far more often than simply Thursday night fire practice, Pocock adds. “They’re hungry for that knowledge.”
Even the chief, whose paid time is 21 hours per week, volunteers another 20 or so, an arrangement agreed to when he was hired. While catching up on paperwork and other tasks in the hall is part of his weekly routine, he still relishes going out on calls.
Pocock has a wealth of professional experience, including 10 years with the Vancouver Fire Department and time spent with VFD’s technical rescue team and the heavy urban search and rescue unit Canada Task Force 1.
Most recently he was deputy chief of training and operations with Dashwood Fire Rescue near Qualicum Beach. Since 2015, he has operated the firefighting training company Prepare4.
When considering the search for a new chief, East Sooke Fire Commission members acknowledged the challenges of finding someone qualified and willing to volunteer the countless hours required.
Shifting the position to half-time paid status attracted better candidates, says Falk Wagenbach, commission chair and volunteer firefighter.
“I think it’s very good we now provide our mutual aid partners with a very professional chief,” he says. He adds that the commission was thrilled when Pocock applied, given his knowledge of the community and varied experience.
Not only is Pocock a very professional incident commander, Wagenbach says, but he is also qualified to lead much of the volunteer training.
“Over the last number of years, since we were not professional firefighters, we were not able to train each other to the standard of a professional fire department,” he says, noting that sometimes required paying for outside training. “He is way more capable of it.”
Pocock says it also helps to have firefighter friends around North America to compare notes with or ask for advice.
The department is always accepting applications for new volunteer firefighters. Email chief@eastsookefire.ca or stop by the station at 6071 East Sooke Rd. on Thursday evening to find out more.