FEWER GRASS FIRES IN CBRM
Public awareness campaign, wet weather helped the cause.
There have been fewer grass fires in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality in 2018 than in previous years, says the deputy chief of the municipality’s fire services.
And, while Chris March is pleased with the decrease in the costly and senseless blazes that are often deliberately set, he admits he’s not quite sure why the number of grass fires is down this year.
“It was looking like it was going to be a very bad year for grass fires — in one three-day stretch we attended 51 fires one day, 75 fires the next and the day after was more than 100,” said March, who also serves as the fire service’s public information officer and manager of fleet, training and prevention.
“And that puts a strain on our firefighters — it’s not just a physical strain, but it’s a mental strain as well because every minute they spend putting out grass fires in a field is a moment that they’re not at their job or not with their families.”
On April 24, the more than 100 grass fires consumed the resources and attention of 17 different fire departments across the CBRM.
March said the fire service carried out a focused public information campaign to make people aware of the dangers and costs associated with grass fires.
“We really got aggressive this year with an education campaign and we got a lot of help from our partners in the media with news stories, a full-page ad in the Cape Breton Post, and a lot of public service announcements on the radio,” he said.
“It was turning out to be a very stressful year and a very bad year, but then, at the same time that we had our ads running and the public announcements were on the radio, it rained for three solid days and after that when the rain let up we were down to 10 or so calls per day and then it ended quite abruptly.”
So was it the public educational
campaign or the wet weather that caused the decrease in the number of grass fires in the CBRM?
“I don’t know, but I’d like to think it was combination of both,” opined March.
Meanwhile, the fire service has finalized the hiring of two fire prevention officers. During a CBRM council meeting last
week, Garfield (Gary) O’Brien, who spent 25 years with the Reserve Mines Volunteer Fire Department, and Mark Jessome, a current member of the Sydney River Volunteer Fire Department, were officially appointed as municipal fire inspectors.
March said the CBRM council had to approve the new officers in order to give them the authority
to conduct fire inspections and to enforce the relative codes and acts. Their duties include conducting fire inspections, code enforcement, fire investigations, public education and the administration and enforcement of related municipal bylaws and the Nova Scotia Fire Safety Act.