The Town of Port McNeill is expanding its mutual aid agreement with the Village of Port Alice.
The existing agreement agreed to provide support to fires or motor vehicle accidents on Highway 19 as far as the Marble River Bridge on the Port Alice Road.
The Port Alice mill has shut down for six months which may result in Port Alice losing some of its firefighters due to people leaving the community to find work.
Under the existing agreement, if there was a fire call in Port Alice, the Port McNeill Fire Department would not be called and would not be able to help, because there is no mutual aid agreement in place.
At their meeting May 4, Port McNeill Council agreed to expand the mutual aid agreement to cover the Village of Port Alice.
The Town of Port McNeill has mutual aid agreements in place with Hyde Creek, Nimpkish Heights, Woss, Sointula and Port Hardy.
The fire departments only respond if resources are available, and the responding department is under the managerial control of the requesting department.