Gayle Baker

When did you come to Salt Spring and what brought you here? My partner and I bought a farm on Bullock Lake about 15 years ago. We fell in love with the landscape here - the coastal rain forest is quite amazing. The island has a great cultural and food scene. Why did you decide to become a Fire Trustee? Our Fire Board has had difficulty in addressing important issues like a new firehall and balancing costs with public safety. It’s a hard balance to find. We need some common sense and a drive to get basic things done. I think my experience in life gives me some of that. What do you hope to accomplish as a Fire Trustee? I would like to has us finally build a new firehall. We can see the main risks we have here are wildfires in BC and a possible earthquake. We need to give our Fire rescue team the resources they need to protect public safety. Previous proposals may have been a bit too ambitious. We need to find a practical proposal we can afford. It’s do able! We can…

When did you come to Salt Spring? And, what bought you here? We wanted to simplify our life, and we fell in love with this island. We had planned to stay for one year, and we are now beginning our ninth year here. One of the main reasons my wife and I had chosen Salt Spring was because of the hospital, high school, and full service fire department. I never anticipated relying on that department so soon: Within a few weeks of our arrival, we had an emergency with our young son and then, a week later, with our young daughter. The firefighters who responded were wonderful and assuaged my fear of living on an island with their timeliness, knowledge, and compassion. This experience reinforced the wisdom of our decision to make Salt Spring our home. This bittersweet personal experience motivated me to give back to the community by joining the fire department. In 2012, I became a Field Incident Technician. Why did you decide to become a Fire Trustee? I have spent my ent…

When did you come to Salt Spring? And, what bought you here? My wife and I purchased our offshore sailboat in Brentwood Bay in November of 1999. Sailing around the Salish Sea the following summer, the Farmers Market in Ganges was high on our list of places to visit. Anchoring in the harbor, we rowed our dinghy into the Coast Guard dock and were charmed by Salt Spring. Like many who have visited Salt Spring, we decided to move here permanently. We arrived in 2005 and spent that summer building a studio on property that we had purchased three years earlier. I spent much of the next ten years completing that studio and then building a larger home on this same property. My wife joked that, for many of those years, I was under house arrest. And, often, it felt that way. We got our Final Occupancy Permit, and I became a Canadian citizen several summers ago. Finally, I was free to become involved in some challenging issues facing Salt Spring. Why did you decide to become a Fi…

On the first anniversary of becoming Salt Spring Island Fire-Rescue’s eighth Fire Chief, Arjuna George graciously agreed to share some of his story with me. Our Island-raised Chief envisioned a future in customer service in the restaurant industry, hoping to someday become a chef with his own restaurant. When he became a volunteer firefighter in 1997, he caught the firefighting bug. Although working full-time at Thrifty’s, welcoming his newborn daughter, and helping care for his one-year old son, he spent every spare moment learning everything about firefighting. Never intending to make firefighting a career, he simply wanted to learn and practice all he could to prepare for the emergency situations that awaited him. Dreams of becoming a chef were put aside four years later when he became a full-time firefighter. From there, he progressed quickly through the ranks to Captain and Assistant Chief until 2009 when he entered management as Deputy Chief. He sees his strength…

I thought that I knew quite a bit about what was happening on Salt Spring. Was I ever wrong! I had absolutely no idea of all the interesting training initiatives the Salt Spring Island Fire-Rescue (SSIFR) team is offering to keep our community safe. Worried about fire protection at home? SSIFR can help you with your carbon monoxide sensors and smoke detectors so that you - and they – can sleep better at night. How confident are you about being able to effectively use a fire extinguisher? (Be honest - how many of us have actually ever practiced this important skill?) That training is also being offered. Did you know that SSIFR regularly visits neighbourhood gatherings and community groups to discuss FireSmart landscaping and garden-wise alternatives to burning? You are encouraged to invite its fire-safety educators to your event. And have you ever wondered how a building you frequent would be evacuated in case of fire? The SSIFR has already offered evacuation training t…