14 minute read
Salute to firefighters
2021 Salute to our firefighters
New agreement allows County Fire Department to offer better services
BY JOHN MATHER
Lamont County has signed a regional fire service agreement with its urban municipalities for a 10-year period.
“The goal is to essentially maintain an efficient and professional service for residents across the entire county, not just in one town or village,” said Lamont County Fire Chief Shayne Milliken.
“The way the agreement is laid out is that the County provides the knowhow and personnel,” he explained. “The County does the financing while the municipalities provide a safe and efficient fire station to house the equipment.”
Under the terms of the agreement which was signed during the summer, the fire halls must be looked at in terms of capacity and meeting a variety of codes.
In Mundare, the fire hall is outdated and a new firehall is being planned, but it will be several years before it is completed.
“We have a couple of fire stations that are in need of attention,” said Milliken. “In terms of capacity and things like that. What we want to make sure we do is strike the right balance between needs and wants. We have to be able to effectively provide the service.”
Milliken further explains the County is interdependent on all its halls working together when necessary.
“Every station has a pumper and each has a rescue unit to provide critical services on the highways,” stated Milliken. “Some stations have tanker trucks and brush trucks while others don’t. The beauty of the system we’ve been developing over the past year and a half is what happens, in say Andrew, will have an impact in the Lamont or Mundare district so we’ve developed regulations to deal with this.”
He said when a fire call comes in now automatically without any thought two fire districts respond to the call.
“One may be stood down before they reach the scene,”said Milliken. “But two initially respond so we have the backup that we may need.
“It’s truly a team effort because no one hall is going to the fire scene.”
Milliken further explained that this decision was made within the departments and was not part of the new fire agreement.
“It’s used primarily for larger calls such as structure fires,” he added. “If we have a feeling we may need more than one district to respond to an incident then we’ll make that call. That process has been in place for about a year.”
He said that equipment will be constantly upgraded over the years of the agreement.
“We’ve been working over the past year to develop a fleet replacement plan. While nothing in the agreement speaks directly to equipment replacement we do have a core level of service we’ve committed to and we’re currently able to meet that with our current equipment.”
He said the department is always looking to keep its fleet upgraded and doing so on a cost-effective basis.
Last fall, Lamont County replaced two aging tankers with newer ones and Milliken stated he didn’t know how the department would have managed to get through this spring's fire season without the newer units.
“We just don’t know how we would have done it without them,” he said.
Another thing he said has been positive, was the switch to the provincial radio system.
“We had a really good radio system before,” said Milliken. “All our fire stations are on the same frequency. With the provincial system we were able to find cost-effective hardware and we’ve been able to eliminate all dead spots from around the county.”
He added having one dispatch channel and firefighters having the radios at home he found people are more responsive in getting out on a fire call.
“When dispatch lets us know we have a call coming in, people can now hear about it on their mobile units before the actual page comes in.”
The fire agreement was finalized in early July, said Milliken. It had previously been approved by each of the urban councils prior to coming to Lamont County for final approval.
Smoke pours from a house near Mundare, Oct. 13. Mundare Fire and Rescue responded to the fire after a call from the homeowner. Damage was limited to the basement, but smoke damage was throughout the house.
BY JANA SEMENIUK
Fire Prevention week concluded at Andrew School Oct. 15 with a visit from the local fire department.
Deputy Fire Chief Martin Stuart, along with firefighters Dawn Connolly and Shaun Dubitz spent most of the day with students passing along fire safety tips via games and a handson demonstration outdoors.
“This year’s focus was learning what the sounds of a fire are,” said Stuart. “Sounds such as a fire alarm and carbon monoxide detector. We had an assembly and used a game show with the teachers and students so they could learn what the sounds are.”
In addition, students were treated to a demonstration outdoors where a grease fire was initiated on a stove and extinguished.
“We teach the kids to turn off the heat source and put a lid on it. Very simple,” said Stuart. “You never know what might happen when they are at home alone making Kraft Dinner or something.”
Students also experienced handling a fire extinguisher.
“We have a wheelbarrow that we start a fire in, and for grades five and six we teach them how to use a fire extinguisher to put it out,” said Stuart. “We couldn’t have a fire in it this year though, because we were having troubles with the wheelbarrow.”
Stuart added that he thinks it’s important for kids to learn how to handle a fire extinguisher.
“Most people haven’t even used a fire extinguisher before,” he said. “It gives them the handson knowledge to do it properly. The kids are timid at first, but once they start squeezing the trigger, they are more comfortable.”
Stuart has been doing the demonstration at Andrew School for the past five years.
“I’ve been doing it here as long as I’ve been on the department, so around five years,” he said. “But I’m sure it’s been happening here a lot longer than that.”
While Fire Prevention Week originally ran the first week of Oct., scheduling conflicts pushed the fire department’s Andrew School fire safety demonstration to Oct. 15.
Andrew fire fighters teach children extinguisher usage and give safety tips
Staff and students at Andrew School participate in a game teaching fire safety tips during Fire Prevention
Week. Photo: Martin Stuart Andrew Deputy Fire Chief Martin Stuart assists a student at Andrew School in properly operating a fire extinguisher during Fire Prevention Week.
Photo: Jana Semeniuk
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Basement damaged in Mundare area fire
Photo on page 9 BY JOHN MATHER
Mundare Fire and Emergency Service responded to a structure fire near Highway 15 and Township Road 534 on Oct. 13.
“When we arrived we could see heavy black smoke and flames coming from a basement window,” said Mundare Deputy Chief Glenda Dales.
“The guys pulled lines and we contained the fire to the basement where there was some damage. There was lots of smoke damage throughout the house.”
She said the fire was contained within three hours.
Fourteen members responded from Mundare. Chipman was also dispatched on the initial call, but they were stood down before arriving.
Dales said a teenager was home when he saw the smoke. He got out of the house and called his mom who called 911.
“It was a good move on everyone’s part,” said Dales. “It was a good response from all perspectives.
“It was an excellent job done by our members.”
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A Lamont County firefighter uses a power cutting unit to force open the wrecked door of a vehicle during a training session at Aldo Auto recently. Members of the Lamont and Chipman Fire Departments have spent the past several weeks training together on vehicle extraction techniques.
Test duty crew brought district firefighters together
BY JOHN MATHER
During the peak fire fighting season earlier this spring, the Lamont County Fire Department put together a new firefighting unit on a trial basis.
He explained the crew for this truck was made up of members from all of the fire districts across the county.
He said it allowed a crew to get on scene quicker so an incident could be handled earlier and prevent smaller incidents from becoming major ones.
During the three week trial Milliken said the crew responded to a number of incidents and officials discovered a very key improvement to response times.
Firefighters from the five fire stations were asked to sign up when they could be part of the crew. Lamont County has fire stations in Andrew, Bruderheim, Chipman, Lamont and Mundare.
Milliken said to date no decision has been made as to whether the pilot project will become an integral part of the County fire department, but he added it will be part of the upcoming budget discussions.
He said the project did have a positive impact on the level of service the fire department was able to provide.”
One of the other benefits was it allowed firefighters from the various fire stations to get to know one another.
“I’ll say that perhaps over the past year, but definitely before this crew started, to have four firefighters from four different stations working on the same engine and going into other district halls knowing that they were there in a spirit of mutual trust and they were all together to do the same jobs was almost unheard of,” said Milliken.
He said one of the direct benefits of that is that in the next few weeks the County Fire Department will transition to one common uniform patch. Currently each station has its own shoulder patch.
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Fire restrictions on in Lamont County due to dry fall weather
BY JANA SEMENIUK
In a move unusual for this time of year, the County of Lamont has issued a fire restriction as of Oct. 14.
“It’s definitely not normal. Frankly this time of year we are preparing for people to start burning big piles and gearing up for brush pile season where they can burn tree trunks,’ said Lamont County Fire Chief Shayne Miliken. “But we had no choice.”
Miliken explained how an abnormal amount of fire activity prompted the move.
“We were averaging one to two fires a day for the past 14 days, and an unusual number of fires for the past 21 days. Some were field fires. We don’t want to put a restriction on unless absolutely necessary,” he said.
Miliken described the final straw.
“The last call we had was the deciding factor. It was a fire in the north-
Long time Chipman deputy fire chief resigns
BY JOHN MATHER
Chipman Fire Department Deputy Chief Don McBride has retired after 20 years of service.
McBride’s last day on the job was Oct. 15.
“He retiring and will be moving with his family out of the area,” said Lamont County Fire Chief Shayne Milliken. “It’s definitely going to leave a hole in our service.”
He said for the interim McBride’s position will be filled by Lamont Deputy Chief Scott Calder.
“Lamont and Chipman have been working very closely for the last six months. So we’re going to have Deputy Chief Calder fill in there in the interim because it’s just a natural progression.” ern part of the county where the homeowner did everything right. It was a permit fire and the conditions changed very quickly,” he said. “The wind came and broke the fire guard later in the evening and we got a call around 10:30 that night.” While the fire was successfully extinguished, Miliken said firefighters were battling the blaze for hours.
“We finally got finished around 3:30 a.m.,” he said. “The conditions were perfect for that fire to spread. We normally have moisture this time of year to help control it, but we aren’t seeing that right now.”
With a fire restriction verses an outright ban in place, Miliken explained what people are still
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allowed to do.
“Basically, anything that requires a permit is restricted,” he said. “So, people can still have burn barrels or use their backyard firepits but if you need to apply for a permit such as for a field fire or to burn yard debris it won’t be allowed.”
In terms of when the restriction is expected to be lifted, Miliken was unsure.
“Depends on the weather. Doesn’t look like it will improve over the next seven days, but I do see some precipitation in the forecast. We might get lucky and have it only last a week,” he said.
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