The Thompson Nicola Regional District is hoping to bring in volunteer fire service east of Kamloops.

TNRD board members have voted to spend up to $17,000 on a study for bringing fire protection from just outside Kamloops city limits to Monte Creek.

Director of community services Ron Storie says it could save property owners money in the long run.

“If we move forward on a new fire protection area, it has to be covered by the Fire Underwriters Insurance folks. Which means that residents, if they currently have insurance, they may see a break in their insurance rates from having a bonafide fire department in the area.”

He says right now there is no one to respond to a fire in the zone from just east of Kamloops to Monte Creek. Storie says local fire crews will be called to some incidents though; most often for wildfires.

“There’s a number of different circumstances, but they vary. If the province is asking – and they’ll provide us a task number in order to cover our costs – most local government fire departments, if they have capacity, they’ll leave their fire protection area to service these things. And that’s if the province asks us.”

Residents would have to vote yes or no, and Storie says a referendum or petition to do could happen as early as next year.

If that timeline goes as expected and residents said yes, the new fire protection area would likely be in place in 2022.