Social media darlings Pender Island Fire Rescue (PIFR) enjoyed a Christmas Eve interview with Chicago-based Nexstar Media Group affiliate WGNTV, highlighting the department’s success at promoting fire safety messages online.
Capt. Todd Bulled, who spearheaded the rural fire department’s now-viral awareness efforts, appeared via remote on U.S. television with Assistant Chief Adrian Hanson and Capt. Jon Grelik, thanking his “Gen Z secret weapon” son, the humour instincts of comedy-straight-man Fire Chief Mike Dine and award-winning actor and Pender Island resident Bruce Greenwood — who Bulled said helped refine their videos and even made a cameo appearance.
Bulled was also interviewed earlier this month for CBC Radio’s The Current.
With a peak of 1.3 million likes for their Nov. 12 smoke-detector-themed parody of the Twilight movie franchise, the PIFR’s Instagram profile @penderfire now has more than 73,400 followers — or nearly 14 times more than the Capital Regional District (@crd_bc), which contracts with the Pender Islands Fire Protection Society to provide service to North and South Pender islands.