Cash-strapped rural fire departments face the financial equivalent of a four-alarm blaze when having to replace essential equipment.
Nolalu fire Chief Sarah Shoemaker said when her department's water tanker truck broke down earlier this year, it was deemed to be beyond repair.
"It was over 40 years old and not fixable," Shoemaker, who has been department chief for eight years, said on Thursday.
Shoemaker said the fire department could be looking at having to come up with about $150,000 for a second-hand tanker truck, or another type of container vehicle that could be converted to haul water.
Used tanker trucks in good condition are hard to come by these days, due to supply-chain issues, Shoemaker noted.
So far, the department has raised $30,000. Various fundraising events are planned throughout the summer.
"We're an unincorporated community, so we can't raise revenue (for the fire department) through taxes," Shoemaker said.
Though the province paid for a main pumper truck for Nolalu's fire department a few years ago, auxiliary vehicles, such as a tanker truck, don't qualify for funds.
Fire hydrants seldom exist in rural areas, and pumper trucks can run out of water quickly. Ideally, pumper and tanker trucks go to an emergency scene at the same time.
Shoemaker said without a tanker truck, firefighters enroute to a scene have to quickly locate a creek or other waterway they can tap into, or rely more on mutual-aid agreements from neighbouring fire departments.
Nolalu's new focus on a tanker truck means the department likely will have to postpone saving for a new main fire hall. It operates two fire halls on Highway 588.
On the plus side, Shoemaker said, the fire department has more than 25 volunteers, an unusually high number for a rural outfit.
"We don't have a tanker, but we do have personnel," she said.