Services

Our Services

Emergency Fire & Rescue Response Services

Your Hilden Volunteer Fire Brigade is an fire and rescue emergency service provider. We respond to a variety of situations including:

  • Structure Fires
    A structure fire is a fire involving the structural components of various residential buildings ranging from single-family detached homes and townhouses to apartments and tower blocks, or various commercial buildings ranging from offices to shopping malls. Structure fires require the coordination of many sub-disciplines such as Rescue operations, Forcible entry, Ventilation, Utilities control, Loss control, Cause determination and Recovery efforts. Often mutual-aid form neighboring fire districts is required.
  • Mutual Aid
    In emergency services, mutual aid is an agreement among emergency responders to lend assistance across municipal district boundaries. This may occur due to an emergency response that exceeds local resources, such as a major structure fire. Mutual aid may be ad hoc, requested only when such an emergency occurs. It may also be a formal standing agreement for cooperative emergency management on a continuing basis, such as ensuring that resources are automatically dispatched when specific emergencies occur. This is regularly referred to as “automatic aid agreements”. Hilden is regularly dispatched to neighboring fire brigades such as Brookfield, Truro, Cobequid, Stewiacke, etc…
  • Brush/Grass Fires
    During the spring and summer the Hilden Fire Brigade will frequently respond to brush and grass fire incidents within the district. Although they can occur naturally they are most often the result of careless outdoor burning practices in combination with hot and dry weather conditions. Outdoor burning is regulated by the Department of Natural Resources and burning permits are required under the authority of the Forests Act. DNR works cooperatively with volunteer brigades providing training and equipment for brush and wildland fire suppression.
  • Flue Fires
    During the cold seasons flue fires are a regular occurrence in Hilden. A flue/chimney fire is the burning of residue deposits referred to as creosote, on the inner surfaces of chimney tiles, flue liners, stove pipes, etc. The process begins with the incomplete combustion of fuel coming in contact with the cooler chimney surfaces and condensing into tar-like deposits that eventually ignite. Risk factors include burning green/wet wood, low-temperature fires, fluctuations in outside temperature and chimneys mounted on the outside of the residence.
  • Motor Vehicle Accidents & Fires
    Over the course of a year the HFB will respond to numerous fire and non-fire emergencies involving motor vehicles. For non-fire emergencies the brigade members are trained to handle basic life support medical emergencies as well as extrication of patients from vehicles; addressing spilled or leaking flammable and combustible liquids, and ensuring for overall scene safety of the general public, first responders, and patients. Having our station located within the community can result in faster response time then the nearest ambulance.
    Some motor vehicle accidents escalate to include motor vehicle fires that present numerous hazards to suppression operations. The unknown of what hazards may be contained within the vehicle combined with standard vehicle component hazards like fuel, airbags, compressed air make operations dangerous to emergency response personnel and the public.
  • Medical
    Members of the brigade are trained to the level necessary to provide the initial first response to medical emergencies. The incident response is coordinated with Nova Scotia EHS. When the EHS staff requests firefighter support or the expected EHS response time is delayed dispatch will automatically have our brigade respond to the incident. Firefighters as first responders can also support patient care by providing specialized rescue or extrication equipment in specific circumstances, and assist paramedics as necessary.
  • Fire Alarms
    Another common response service is checking in to fire alarm incidents that may be false alarms or smoke conditions that do not escalate to a fire incident. Other miscellaneous types of incidents the brigade would respond to are: Disaster rescue incidents involving flooding, hurricane, wildfire; Hazardous material spills, Power lines on fire, etc.

Non-Emergency Community Services

In addition to our emergency and fire response services, we also offer the following services to the community: