Delta's firefighters are this year marking a milestone in the department's history - 50 years of having career firefighters.
As Ladner, the first area of Delta with a non-native settlement, began to grow in the early 1900s, so did the incident of fire.
The community's fire department started out as many did at the time - with volunteers, and the task of fighting fires fell to local residents and merchants who would form bucket brigades.
There were no water lines in the early part of the last century and to fight a fire residents would have to access water in wells and drainage ditches fed by the river.
In 1911, a water system was installed along with fire hydrants and in 1915 the first local fire brigade was formed.
Delta's first fire hall was set up in the municipal barn at the north end of Elliott Street and an alarm system was established.
After a serious fire in 1929, the municipality took a larger role in the development of the department.
In 1943, the department had about 16 volunteers and Delta purchased its first fire truck. It was a right-hand-drive, open cab Ford chassis that was outfitted with a water tank and other firefighting equipment.
The little fire hall in Ladner remained the only one in Delta until after the Second World War.
Shortly after the end of the Second World War, residents living in the Beach Grove area began petitioning council for better firefighting in that area. In 1948, the group received a grant and built a small fire hall (Hall 2) on 16th Avenue and purchased a Studebaker fire truck.
The next year, North Delta residents formed their own fire department (Hall 3) and work began on a new hall in Ladner (Hall 1).
Things continued to grow and change after the war. In the 1950s, new trucks and equipment were purchased. However, the completion of the George Massey Tunnel in 1959 - in addition to the opening of the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal and the establishment of Highway 99 - changed Delta, and the small fire department, forever.
With the booming population and new found freedom with the establishment of the tunnel and highway, volunteer numbers began to dwindle as a significant number of residents began commuting out of the area for work. As a result, Delta hired its first full-time career firefighters in 1963 - Walter Husband, Kenneth Campbell, L.A. Davidson and John Tapio.
Times have certainly changed over the years. As the area continued to grow, and volunteer numbers dwindled, more and more paid firefighters were hired. What started as a crew of four and three fire halls now stands at a department with 162 firefighters (179 total staff) and seven fire halls.
Husband, who still lives in Ladner, had been a volunteer for eight years when he was hired as the first paid firefighter in Delta.
He said the men were stationed in Tsawwassen and North Delta as Ladner and East Delta continued to maintain a strong core of volunteers.
The paid firefighters worked day shifts Monday through Friday with volunteers covering evenings and weekends.
Times were different then. There were no radios in the trucks. Once a firefighter was dispatched to a call, there was no way to get updates, call in back up or know if any one else was responding.
"You just looked in the rearview mirror of your truck and hoped to God that someone was following you," Husband said, chuckling.
Husband and his wife started a scrapbook when he joined the department in the 1950s. Over the years, he's accumulated any and all information he can about the fire department, even after he retired as deputy chief in 1985. Today he has books and binders overflowing with photos, clippings and documents chronicling the changes in the department throughout the years.
All that information, newspaper clippings and old photos were put to good use as the department got ready to mark 50 years of career firefighters. It formed the basis of a video looking back over the history of the department, which was shown at a special celebration last month.
"I think for a lot of the younger people it was a real eye opener," said fire chief Dan Copeland.
Delta fire union (International Association of Firefighters Local 1763) president Brad Wilson, a second-generation Delta firefighter, said the event was organized to recognize the importance of having a career fire department.
He said there was a lot of support for organizing the event and producing the video from the outset.
"For the newer guys, their eyes were just wide open," he said.
To honour that and the anniversary, the department released challenge coins. One was given to each firefighter, current and retired.
Challenge coins have become a tradition in the fire service in the last 10 years. The small medallion was designed by members of the Delta firefighters union, IAFF Local 1763, with input from management and incorporates different flashers and logos from years past as well as Delta's coat of arms. It is meant to symbolize union and management working together to advance the department's vision and mission goals.
"Firefighting is a calling," Copeland said. "You go into it because you have a desire to help people and solve problems."
