Beavers and a Tim’s card: a very Canadian solution to a firefighting challenge

A volunteer fire department in rural Nova Scotia is getting a much-needed helping hand — or paw — from a group of busy beavers.

The Indian Point Volunteer Fire Department has wanted to install a dry hydrant in the area off Oakland Road since its founding in 1955.

“A couple of years ago we had a series of very bad fires in various parts of the province. And I thought, you know, we’ve got to get a dry hydrant in here. We just have to,” said Chief Tom Lockwood.

“We thought, why don’t we get in cahoots with the beavers and see what we can do?”

A family of beavers has lived in a nearby marsh for more than 25 years and has created quite a dam to show for it. As it turns out, that dam created the perfect freshwater reservoir for rural fire departments.

“The situation here in the province is really quite dire because so many of our small communities, which are in the forested areas, are where the fires are,” said Sherrill Harrison, who owns the land.

But installing a traditional dry hydrant would mean drilling through the beaver dam. So the fire department knew it would have to design something new.

They contacted RPS Composites, which manufactures composite pipe systems, to help with the project.

“They spent about an hour making various drawings,” said Lockwood.

“However, we’re a volunteer fire department. We don’t have any money. They went away and they came back and they said, if you buy $100 worth of Tim Hortons coffee for our staff, we’ll make this thing for you for free, and they were true to their word.”

The pipe acts like a see-saw. Its suspended end dips down when needed and allows any fire department to attach to it and draw water during emergencies.

True to the fire department’s intentions, the system doesn’t disturb the dam underneath.

Installed last fall, the hydrant is a collaboration between the volunteer firefighters, Nova Scotia Power, the provincial highway department, the Harrison family, and the many local companies that donated supplies.

But none of it would be possible without nature’s builders.

“They’re the ones who have really preserved it and prevented, through their dams, the water draining out,” said Harrison.

Lockwood calls it a “symbiotic relationship with the beavers.”

“I think it’s marvelous,” he said.

“They don’t bother us. We don’t bother them. They’re happy as can be and so are we.”