The Tyendinaga Mohawk Fire Department has a shiny, new building to house its equipment.
It’s been a long-time coming said Mohawk Fire Chief Scott Maracle.
“When I started 40 years ago, they were in repurposed buildings then, and we were talking about a new building at that time, so, 40 years later, here we are,” Maracle told APTN News. “It’s just awesome for the fire guys, girls and you know it’s something to really be proud of.”
The state-of-the-art facility is the result of determined leadership he said.
“First Nation communities are not funded adequately for fire protection, so there was no government money for this building,” he said. “Our chief and council just decided they were going to build a building, went to the bank and took out a loan, four and a half million dollars later here we are.”
The upgrade was backed by community businesses as well, in total, they donated over a million dollars.
Keith Maracle owns Tyendinaga Propane.
“It’s a win, win for us all, so anything that I can do to help support as with other people in the community, it’s great we, have a wonderful fire department,” he said. “They don’t only go to fires, they do lots of other things that people don’t really know about, I don’t think we give them credit for doing, so it’s always a pleasure to help them out.”
Jonah Lewis is one of 26 volunteers on the fire crew and has been a firefighter for eight years.
He said the support means a lot.
“I see this as a kind of a pillar for the community and a place where people know that our Emergency response team is well housed and good in a good spot,” he said.
