Firefighters and their families joined with members of the community to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Kingston District Fire Department recently.
The department was formed in 1944 and is presently located at 570 Sparky Street in the Village Of Kingston. The street was built specifically for the fire station.
Watson Armstrong is the department’s sixth fire chief. He has been a member of the department for 43 years, becoming chief in 2001.
During an interview at the recent open house on Saturday, Oct. 5, he said the department currently has 60 members, including eight officers, and has seven vehicles, with an annual budget in the vicinity of $300,000.
It provides fire service and emergency response to Kingston, Greenwood, Tremont, Harmony, Melvern Square and South Farmington and has mutual aid agreements with all departments in Annapolis and Kings counties.
Chief Armstrong said the department has a huge impact on the community.
“We get called for everything from a cat up a tree, to a flooded basement, to a refrigerator making a noise,” Armstrong said.
“It’s not just fire service anymore. I guess you would have to class it as emergency services because of what we do.”
He said the department’s responsibilities have grown over time and include fire inspections and fire prevention in schools as well as medical emergency response, including cardiac arrest calls, lift assists and motor vehicle collisions at the request of paramedics. There are also calls to monitor power lines during storms from NS Power.
“I guess it’s in my blood after 43 years,” he said.
He said the most memorable call was the fire at the former Capital Paper warehouse in Kingston. The large, three-story, wooden structure contained cardboard and other paper products when it was destroyed by fire in July 2013. It was surrounded by several different structures that had to be protected.
“We brought in every department from Kentville to Annapolis Royal,” he said.
“That allowed us to use four aerial trucks. The key was lots of water and lots of manpower.
Everything went our way. There was no wind. We saved everything around it.”
Chief Armstrong also said the department has seen other changes over the decades, including welcoming the contribution of female members.
There are about a dozen female members, which the chief says play a vital role in the department's ability to fulfill its role.
The departments website describes its commitment to be a multi-cultural and diverse entity of men and women dedicated to protecting the public it serves.
“The female members are more than capable of doing anything and everything that the males do,” he said.
Jennifer Banks joined the department eight years ago with her sister and her father.
"The biggest part for me is giving back to the community. Before I joined, we had several chimney fires, and it was a relief to see the fire department show up in the driveway," Banks said while leading children through a junior FireFit course at the open house.
Chief Armstrong said the veteran firefighters also continue to play an impotent role.
Wendell Pineo has been a firefighter for 47 years. As he mingled with other members while enjoying a piece of anniversary cake, he recounted riding on the back of a fire truck at high speed in the middle of winter.
"I was putting my gear on, but I didn't get my glove on, and I froze one of my fingers. And boy, I felt it for a few days afterwards," Pineo said.
Chief Armstrong said the department continues to prepare for the future by emphasizing training and updating its fleet of vehicles.
“We continue to grow. We have a new truck coming. A lot of fire departments are struggling to recruit personnel. We have five new applications that are being processed right now,” the chief said.
