North Whidbey Fire and Rescue honored its finest Friday during an annual appreciation dinner at the Elks Club.

Chris Hernandez was named Volunteer Firefighter of the Year. Bill Cooper was named Duty Crew member of the Year and Ty Welshans was Recruit Academy Firefighter of the Year.

Rich Hoover was given the Steve Lacy award, named for a captain who gave above and beyond.

Long-time members were honored, including: Robert Dorr and Dillon Sather, five years; Jim O’Connor, Gregg Alonzo, Ed Klaszky, Scott Jackson, Bill McArthur, Ryan Nowicki and Chris Chastain, 10 years; Ryan McCarthy and Frank Valencic, 15 years; and Bill Brooks, Cliff Horr, and Tim Schulz, 20 years.

North Whidbey Fire and Rescue covers emergency calls outside city limits from Deception Pass to Libbey Road as well as assisting with mutual aid for other area departments.

Many of its 105 members are volunteers, although the department includes 28 paid on-call firefighter-emergency medical technicians.

The department staffs two stations all the time and has on-call personnel available at four other stations.

During 2015, NWFR firefighters responded to 2,145 calls — nearly two-thirds of which were medical calls.

The rest were fire and rescue calls. Staff accumulated 9,700 combined hours of emergency services training. The department also held CPR classes for the public.

Last year, the department began building a new station at the corner of Monkey Hill and Toxell Road that’s expected to be completed next month.

Long-time chief Marv Koorn also retired after 37 years of service and replaced by former deputy Mike Brown. Mark Kirko became deputy chief.