Ellison Fire Department

About Ellison

Ellison is an unincorporated community located approximately midway up the Okanagan valley within the Central Okanagan East Electoral Area of the Regional District of Central Okanagan.

It's founded on a heritage of agriculture, rural acreages and scattered residential neighbourhoods within scenic valley terrain. It is accessed via Old Vernon Road from either the north or south end of the Kelowna International Airport.

There are approximately 1,000 homes with an estimated 2,700 residents sparsely spread throughout a fire protection area of some 82 square kilometres.

The geography of Ellison contains many small and rare dry-land ecosystems of open, arid grasslands and pine forest savannahs. Streams that support a diversity of animals and plants cross these dry ecosystems. Water is a precious resource and a focus for biodiversity and wildlife corridors. Because of the pivotal nature of water in the environment, the Regional District focuses upon conserving streams, wetlands, ponds and the variety of nearby ecosystems they support.

There are three main streams that cross the Ellison area; Scotty Creek, Whelan Creek and Mill Creek. These streams and their tributaries are an important habitat in their own right and drain into spawning streams for kokanee, trout and other fish. Ellison also has aspen and cottonwood ecosystems that are wet islands in a dry landscape. These wetlands act as a sponge and a filter that maintain water quality and help maintain the quantity of water in aquifers and streams.

The elevation in Ellison ranges between 1,350 to 2,490 feet.

Apparatus and equipment

See our equipment here (pdf)

History of the fire department

• The Ellison Fire Department was established in 1979.
• The current Fire Hall was built in 2000 and sits beside the Ellison School on land donated in the early 1900s.

Recruitment

If you're interested in joining the Ellison Fire Department, please see our recruitment page.