D’Arcy Bridgman is a 10 year veteran who occupies the role of Training Captain with the Keremeos and District Volunteer Fire Department.
“(Former) Firefighter Doug MacLeod got me interested,” Bridgman said describing his original reason for joining. Bridgman was one of the earliest high school recruits, starting 15 years ago. The last three have seen him take on a captain’s role.
“I like to help in the community. I lived in the Kootenays for a few years, and I really missed it,” Bridgman said.
“This is a good group of people to be involved with socially, too.”
Bridgman works out of the village much of the time, which limits his availablity for callouts. Still, he finds time to respond during the hours he is in the community.
“Calls are exciting,” he admits, “I don’t want the pager to go off, but when it does, I’m ready to respond.”
Bridgman finds the compensation adequate, echoing other members’ sentiments regarding financial compensation - “If you’re in it for money, it’s the wrong reason.”
“I answer every call I can,” he said, “as far as inconvenience goes, in just about every situation you can name - I’ve been interupted by the pager going off.”