No sooner had Nick Ahlefeld been appointed Castlegar’s permanent fire chief than his skills were put to the test. Trial by fire? Putting his feet to the fire? Out of the frying pan, into the fire? You choose the cliché.
Saturday morning, firefighters were called to a house fire in the 600 block of 11th Street. Ahlefeld said 21 members responded, with the first crews arriving within eight minutes of the call. They arrived to find the home full engulfed in flames, but everyone got out safe.
“So we went to a defensive attack right off the start,” he told city council this week. “Unfortunately, it [destroyed] one home, but happy to say that we protected three other structures.”
Later that evening, a travel trailer burned in the 900 block of 6th Street. However, Ahlfeld said the fire snuffed itself out. Those two incidents helped bring the number of calls the department has received this year to 828, compared to 708 at the same time last year, representing an increase of 17 per cent.
Ahlefeld became the department’s deputy chief in April 2017. He was a volunteer with the department for a decade prior to that. In April of this year he became acting chief after Sam Lattanzio retired.
On Monday, city manager Chris Barlow told council that the city posted the job, and Ahlefeld was chosen: “I’m happy to say that acting fire chief Ahlefeld is no longer acting. He is now our full-time fire chief. So congratulations.”
Barlow also noted a fire services review was recently completed with some recommendations for the department.
“I’m very happy and proud to say that Mr. Ahlefeld has done an amazing job of starting to implement a number of those recommendations and has run the hall very well in the last number of months.”
