North Huron Council has adopted two resolutions in the hopes of calming an escalating situation with it's fire department.
1-2 captains from both the Wingham Fire Department as well as Blyth Fire will be invited to attend North Huron Council, where it's hoped a plan can be made after a situation on Thursday evening that saw close to 40 firefighters verbally resign.
At a meeting attended by North Huron Staff and Fire Department members at the Emergency Services Training Centre in Wingham, it was expected council would name an interim chief while searching for a replacement (Chief Ryan Ladner resigned on November 24th). After this meeting, North Huron Deputy Fire Chiefs Matt Townsend & Chad Kregar, as well as many other firefighters walked out of the meeting, giving verbal resignations as they left. North Huron CAO Dwayne Evans stressed that no written resignations have been received, and so council is still operating under the assumption that these firefighters would make themselves available in the case of a fire emergency.
Mark Alderman has been appointed as acting Director of Emergency Services.
Evans says if there is a fire emergency in North Huron, there are fire services in place to deal with any issues as a part of their contingency plan, that includes the Huron County mutual aid plan, as well as enlisting the help of neighbouring fire departments in the case of an emergency. Despite the verbal resignations by so many firefighters, Evans stresses that the service "will be the same service that was available previously. There's no change". Evans made it clear council is proceeding based on not receiving written resignations from any firefighters.
Reeve Neil Vincent says three neighbouring municipalities purchase fire service, and these services remain the same despite the escalating situation.
Vincent says he hopes the two resolutions adopted by council Friday is a step towards getting this issue solved, saying "there has been a big breakdown in communication between firefighters and council", noting council must work as quickly as they can, and wants "to have some things settled Monday night in meetings with captains, to decide on the next steps".
Vincent says his impression was that the firefighters felt deserted, and that they weren't being listened to, hoping that the upcoming meetings will allow council to open up dialogue with them to assure them that council is listening, and wants to solve this issue. The Reeve says they depend on their volunteer firefighters, and that they're probably the most valuable volunteers in the entire community.
In the interim, North Huron has adopted a contingency plan to deal with any emergencies in North Huron, or any other neighbouring municipalities, especially those which are under shared services agreements.
Two resolutions adopted by North Huron during Friday's closed session will see 1-2 captains from the Wingham/Blyth Fire Departments invited to attend council before the new year, as well as extending an invite to Joe Casey, a Marshall with the Ontario Fire Marshall's Office. The two captains & Fire Marshall Casey could appear at North Huron Council as early as Monday, December 11th.