Quinn Miller is the new chief of the Ten Mile Volunteer Fire Department (TMFD), a role he has had for a couple of months. He, and several other new chiefs in the region, were appointed for the 2025-2028 term.
Miller has been with the TMFD for over four years with it being the first fire hall he's been a part of.
"There was a sign on the road and every time I drove by it, I kind of thought about joining to help the community out," he said. "The reason I keep coming is the guys here. They're a good group of guys, lots of knowledge and a very welcoming bunch."
The TMFD has around 14 regular volunteers with more who are in the area for around six months of the year and volunteer with the department when they're in town.
"I was friends with the previous chief, unfortunately he's moving away," Miller said. "Lots of guys in the hall have either been chief before or they're nearing the end of their terms so they weren't interested in stepping up."
Miller said there's much more administration work that goes on with the department than he realized, he credited the department's administrative officer for always being on top of that work.
While the department does have its fires and major incidents, Miller said they're lucky that they don't regularly have major calls.
"We're lucky we've got a fairly small area and we only go to fire or motor vehicle incidents," he said. "It's not a huge volume. A lot of them, we drive out there, make sure nothing's on fire and then either do traffic control or drive back."
While the provincial park is in the department's area, Miller said campers and people having fires don't usually cause problems for the department with most people having safe fires and following fire bans when they are in place.
"We've only had one vehicle fire in the provincial park since I've been here so we've been lucky that way for those sites," he said.
One of the tips he offered for people to be safe is to follow fire bans when they are place, at the time of publication the Cariboo region has Category 2 and Category 3 fire bans in place. This allows campfires no larger than 0.5 metres by 0.5 metres and bans anything larger as well as fireworks, burn barrels or burn cages, controlled air incinerators, air curtain burners and carbonizers.
The other piece of safety advice he has is for people to ensure they have working smoke alarms in their homes.
"There's a shocking number of people that die at a house fire that shouldn't have because the smoke detectors didn't work," he said.
For people interested in joining the department, Miller said like any organization that relies on volunteers, the TMFD is always looking for more people.
"A lot of our members are retired and getting to the end of where they want to be going out and fighting fires. So if anyone is out there looking to volunteer, thinking about volunteering, wanting to be part of the community, fire hall's a good way to do it," Miller said. "It's one night a week for practice and then you go on calls when you're available. It's not a huge time commitment. You can really help somebody save their house."
People interested in volunteering can swing by one of the department's practices at 7 p.m. on Wednesdays or contact the department through email or phone. More information on joining a CRD fire department can be found on the regional district's website.
