Hot Summer Nights are back in Maple Ridge

The Maple Ridge fire department’s Hot Summer Nights program is back this year however, this year will have no fixed schedule.

According to James Clelland, the assistant fire chief with the department, this year the fire department will not have a fixed advance schedule for the Hot Summer Nights due to the pandemic.

“We are very conscious of the COVID situation and are doing our best to balance the re-institution of these events while being mindful of the current situation. In keeping with this awareness, we have chosen not to advertise too much in advance,” he said.

On July 28, the fire department had their first Hot Summer Nights visit at Tolmie Park and Country Lane Park.

The program which was started back in 1998, has continued to remain very popular with the community and the first hot summer nights program this year saw an “excellent” response. There were a total of 30 volunteers from the fire department and over 90 children at the two parks, according to Clelland.

“As a department we look forward to these events. Not only is it a fun event for the children, it is also fun for the firefighters. It is an excellent opportunity to further community engagement, provide informal public education on fire safety, to demonstrate some of the capabilities of the fire department, and to showcase our equipment. We also use it to generate interest in our paid on-call firefighter positions,” Clelland said.

The next Hot Summer Night will be at Jordan Park, 21020 117th Avenue, and 104th Avenue and Robertson Street on August 4, 6:30 p.m. onwards. For now, the locations for Aug. 11, 18 and 25 are undecided.

The most up-to-date information on Hot Summer Nights can be found here: https://www.mapleridge.ca/434/Hot-Summer-Nights.

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