Homestead Co-op helped its community's firefighters last week by contributing a retired vehicle from their fleet to assist with training purposes.

Last Thursday, the MacGregor Fire Department accepted a pickup truck for vehicle extrication training. Fire Chief Chris Leckie says this donation was huge for supporting the department to keep up with their skills.

"It's good to feel how the noises and how the vehicle reacts to that extrication course," he continues. "Vehicle extrication and responding to accident scenes are quite common. They happen quite often in our area and the surrounding area. We're surrounded by #1 Highway and a lot of the Provincial Roads, too. So, it's high-traffic roads, and you have to be prepared."

Leckie adds that the vehicle was obliterated in the training effort and is off to the auto wrecker.

"It's good training for our members and our department. And everything went well, and we had a great crew out there to practice that night, and that's very valuable for our department. It was a great training experience."