Six Nations Fire and Emergency Services (SNFES) recently celebrated the organization's sixth year anniversary of starting a full time service for the community in June.

Before, the community had been operating under a volunteer fire department structure before the switch was made on June 5, 2017.

SNFES Fire Chief Ashley Russell-Taylor says that the switch to full-time services was necessary because the Six Nations community has faced a lot of active fires in the area. The switch has also allowed SNFES to provide their services more efficiently to the Six Nations community and its residents by reducing its response time.

"It's always unfortunate that we do see the call volume that we do, but we see a lot of traffic and a lot of different transient visitors and vacationers coming to the territory. So as a result we end up with a varying amount of incidents that we're faced with and the challenges that are there is that we're covering an expansive area, a relatively large area, a large population that is ultimately very spread out within those areas," he said. "The advantage that we have now and what provides the highest level of safety possible is that we have our platoons ultimately ready to go at a moments notice, at the drop of a hat and are generally on a truck and moving within a minute and thirty, a minute and forty five seconds out the door. So as a result that cut down time of awaiting volunteers to make it to the fire hall and then getting to the scene is eliminated. Our stats right now roughly show that we can be almost anywhere within the community within ten minutes of a call. That's a huge advantage to the community and really provides a safe approach to fire protection and safety  in the community to all it's members."

SNFES Assistant Fire Chief Crystal Farmer spoke on the evolution that she has been able to see within the department since the expanded services.

"It's evolved immensely in this last six or seven years since we've went full-time, which has been an amazing achievement for our community in Six Nations. I'm very proud of that. I've been with the department for 22 years now and the organization 30 years so to be able to see that come to fruition over these years has been quite the accomplishment and something to be very proud of."

Russell-Taylor praised the entire SNFES staff saying without the work done behind the scenes, the fire department would not be where it is currently and continuing to provide these services to the Six Nations community.

"It starts from the bottom up in terms of the boots on the ground, frontline workers and all of our firefighters and the amazing accomplishments they've been able to achieve through their dedication to the service and the community. They're continuing to push the envelope in terms of their training abilities, experiences and what they bring to the table each day and we wouldn't be where we are without them," he said. "Without the guys and girls on the frontlines, on the trucks responding to those calls everyday, we wouldn't be able to achieve this."

For the full CJKS story listen below: