There are a lot of people interested in becoming firefighters in Steinbach. Fire Chief Kel Toews says that is evident by the number of responses to their recruitment campaign in October.

"We had an overwhelming response. It's the highest number of applications we've ever had. We got somewhere in the range of 66 or 67 applicants."

Toews adds there are many quality applications which will make it a challenge to choose the 12 who will go on to get their training. He says they are about to start the process of interviews and that's where the determinations will be made.

He notes the applicants represent a pretty good cross-section of the city's population in terms of age but says only ten women applied.

"It probably would have been better to see more women apply. I was hoping to get more but we'll shoot for a higher number next time."

Toews says they will choose their 12 recruits by mid to late November and they will start weekly training in January. The Steinbach Fire Department does a recruiting campaign only every few years and Toews explains there's good reason for that.

"When we hire, we have to put them through training to become a Level 1 firefighter and we like to do it in groups of 10-12 as opposed to one or two at a time. It just makes more sense."