After struggling to find members for two of its three fire halls for much of the past year, it appears the Lake Country Fire Department may have found a few new recruits.
The Oyama and Carr's Landing fire halls in Lake Country have both been running with low numbers of paid-on call firefighters but there has been some movement in the number of volunteers stepping forward to help the department.
Fire chief Steve Windsor said they are hoping some new applicants will be able to fill some positions in Oyama and Carr's Landing that have been vacant for the past year.
"We've struggled over the past 12 months in Carr's Landing and Oyama with membership but we have had some good results with some of our advertising," he said. "We are holding tryouts for what we anticipate will be six to eight positions that we want to fill."
Last weekend potential firefighters were put through a series of training exercises as the Lake Country department begins the process of trying to fill the positions.
Windsor said they had 56 people apply for a positions with the department. While the majority of the applicants are from Winfield, the two outlying stations in Oyama and Carr's Landing have also had a few people step forward.
"We've got seven applications for Oyama and two from Carr's Landing," said Windsor.
In Lake Country, firefighters are paid-on call, meaning they are paid when they respond to a fire call but perform other duties on a volunteer basis.