Long before Paul Hurst became chief, the View Royal fire hall was a place he knew as a child. “I started coming to the fire hall with my dad. He was a volunteer here, and I went to my first fire when I was 13 years old,” Hurst said. At 16, Hurst became a volunteer himself. Three years later, he was hired as a paid member, beginning a career that would eventually take him to the chief’s office. He became fire chief in 2006 and spent his years in the role helping guide a department that has changed significantly since he first joined. One of his early priorities as chief was replacing an aging fire hall. “One of the first things they asked me is, what’s your priority as fire chief? And I said, we need a new building. This one is falling down,” he said. View Royal’s mayor and council at the time moved ahead with plans for a new hall. The project cost about $10 million at the time. When Hurst started as a paid member, the department had just two paid firefighters and relied heavily on volunteers. Today, it has 17 paid members, along with a number of paid on call volunteers. Hurst has also watched fire services across the West Shore become increasingly connected. View Royal Fire and Colwood Fire signed a mutual aid agreement in 2008. That agreement was renewed in 2023, with Langford Fire Rescue joining the partnership. Now, the three departments respond together to calls across the West Shore. “Colwood, Langford and View Royal Fire are essentially one organization now,” Hurst said. Another change Hurst is proud to see will happen just after he leaves the department. An ambulance will once again be stationed at View Royal Fire Hall beginning Oct. 1. The ambulance was moved out of the municipality in the early 1990s, when the provincial government relocated the service that had been based at the old fire hall. For Hurst, its return is another milestone in a career that began when he was a teenager. Thursday will be his final official day with the department. Assistant Chief Kris Malinosky will take over as head of the View Royal Fire Department. “This is his house now,” Hurst said. After spending most of his life in a firefighter’s uniform, Hurst is looking forward to a very different routine. “I’m going to be an apparition, a ghost,” he said. “I’m going to disappear and I’m going to go and enjoy retirement.”
