‘Family helping family’: Cape Breton firefighters send much-needed gear to N.L.

NORTH SYDNEY, N.S. -

For generations, North Sydney, N.S., and Newfoundland have shared a link. Now, North Sydney's volunteer fire department is sending a gesture of goodwill across the Cabot Strait.

"North Sydney is known as the Gateway to Newfoundland,” said North Sydney Volunteer Fire Chief Lloyd MacIntosh, referring to the ferry between his community and Port-Aux-Basques and Argentia, N.L.

The North Sydney Department has collected about $50,000 worth of heavy duty firefighting equipment. A lot of it was paid for with extra money they had from the Nova Scotia Firefighters' 50/50 draw.

"We've replaced a lot of our extrication equipment, and we had surplus extrication equipment that we tried to find a deserving home for,” MacIntosh said. “Through contacts and some people we've met, we discovered that Codroy Valley, Newfoundland, could be the benefactor."

Newfoundland is where a lot of crews recently battled wildfires that broke out in the central part of the province. Codroy Valley is in rural Western Newfoundland, where they have challenges of their own.

"Our fire department (doesn't) have any municipal or local service district, or county funding at all,” said Codroy Valley Fire Chief Brian Osmond. “If you join the fire department, you're joining also to collect money to go fight that fire."

Osmond says the equipment from North Sydney will make a big difference.

For example, when they need to use the Jaws of Life, they've had to wait for the gear to arrive from Port-Aux-Basques.

"... Which is an approximately 45 minute wait,” Osmond said. “That's a long time if you're trapped in a vehicle.”

If a Cape Breton fire crew helping out another in need sounds familiar, it's because it is.

About three years ago, the Reserve Mines Volunteer Fire Department donated $5,000 in prize money from a fire photo contest to the crew in Smith Cove, in southern Nova Scotia. The two fire departments met weeks later, and a friendship was formed.

Chances are a similar bond will be made when firefighters from North Sydney deliver the gear in person this weekend.

"We're heading over on the ferry on Friday morning,” MacIntosh said. "We're capable of training them. When we leave Sunday, all they'll have to do after that is get experienced. They should be fully equipped and ready to go."

In the end, it’s a tale of two fire departments separated by a roughly six-hour ferry trip, but brought closer together by an act of kindness.

"It's family helping family,” Osmond said.