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Message for Arc Rescue

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Onko yrityksesi

Onko yrityksesi

Ihad t he absolutely privilege to spend a few days with the ArcRescue group in Yukon Canada, my primary role was to represent the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs, however what turned out to be a bit more of a host than I had expected. With that being said, it was an absolute delight. Meeting the 18 members of the Fire Services from Finland, Sweden and Norway was just the beginning of a life long friendship building over the next few days.

What became clear very early on in our time together was how many similarities we all shared. We learned that all of us are struggling with the recruitment and retention of firefighters, whether that is a volunteer of a paid employee we do not have enough of them in either country.

We talked and shared many stories about the types of calls we attend. We discussed firefighting operations in arctic type climates where we were again more closely aligned that I would have thought.

Although we shared many many similarities one of the biggest differences was the fact that in most European countries a firefighter does both wildland fires as well as structural whereas here in Canada we separate the functions and structural firefighters stay in communities and wildfire firefighters usually stay in our forested areas. To me this event highlighted the value of international cooperation. We can all learn from one another, and I think that the case studies and hearing how other countries work can only benefit us all

On a personal note, I was so impressed with the professional and friendliness of the members that were in attendance, everyone was so respectful that at many times I was the only one that didn’t speak their language and although they did have some conversations in their native tongue, they were always respectful and cognizant of my attendance and would quickly change to English for my benefit. May seem small to some but it made a big impact to me.

I loved sharing the story and gifting the members with Challenge coins and if you don’t know what I’m talking about, please be sure to ask one of them to show you theirs!!! I hope they have it with them!!!

Lastly, and in closing I will say that I had to leave the group both early and somewhat unexpectedly as I was called to deploy to my home province for some large wildfires and it was hard to leave the group that I very quickly learned to call friends and colleagues – many of whom I have chatted with in the last month since we met. I very much appreciate the work that ArcRescue is undertaking and hope that I can continue to participate in.

Most sincerely,

Ken McMullen Chief/Manager of Emergency Services, the City of Red Deer

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