The purchase of the boat was largely financed with donations from the community. In total, Bristol residents raised about $30,000 in 10 months for the purchase of the boat.

“It feels great how you can raise so much money in such a short time. We had a lot of firemen . . .

work very hard at it,” said Bristol Fire Chief Kevin Kluke.

The boat is intended for rescue operations for when there is trouble on the water.

“We have eight qualified rescuers; they’ve been doing some training on it and we came online with 9-1-1 on May 1. And we’re going to basically cover Aylmer to Portage-du-Fort at the bridge and some lakes behind us,” said Kluke about the area of operations for the boat.

Kluke said that since he’s been with the Bristol Fire Department, he has had to use private boats to respond to calls four times. He added this new boat would allow the municipality to not have to rely on Gatineau, Mansfield or Ontario to perform rescue operations area.

The exact area of operations of the Bristol boat is still to be determined, as Otter Lake has also recently purchased a boat for operations in its lakes.

The man who built the boat, Christian Larouche of Liberty Boats, was present at the inauguration and described some of the boat’s technical aspects.

The boat is an inflatable pontoon boat, according to the Larouche.

“They’re practically unsinkable,” said Larouche about pontoon boats. “You have six different compartments that are all separate from each other. So even if you’d have a puncture in the boat, it’s going to keep floating and finish whatever they’re doing.”

He said that as opposed to a fiberglass boat, pontoon boats are more resistant to collisions, far lighter and easier to hull overland. He said he designed the boat to reach about 61 kilometres on the water.

Larouche said the boat was made to the specifications of the Bristol Fire Department and complimented them on doing their research on what they needed.

Ken Bernard, who led the charge on fundraising for the boat said the fire department still requires a few thousand to pay it off completely, but said he expects that to be raised within a year.

“We had two businesses in the area, Logs End and Bristol Auto Performance who gave substantial amounts of money. We’ve had one individual donation from the community of $1,000. We have another individual donation of $500, several $100 donations, and lots anywhere from $5 to $20.

“The community really stood behind us on this project, “ said Bernard. “So thank you to the community of Bristol.”

Brent Orr, the mayor of Bristol performed the official ribbon cutting dressed in his firefighter uniform.

“We’re very, very fortunate to live where we live”, said Orr. “The community never ceases to amaze me in their donations.”

Pontiac MNA André Fortin was also present at the ceremony and complemented the community on their efforts.

“We’re hoping to help people that need our help in the water in our municipality and neighboring municipalities. We don’t want to use this often but we have it when we need it,” concluded Orr.

The Bristol Fire Departments new rescue was offically unveilled this past weekend.

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