Wainfleet considers consolidating fire halls ...
Wainfleet township council is set to make a decision about consolidating a couple of the rural municipality’s fire halls during a council meeting tonight.
The recommendation under consideration is to combine Fire Hall No. 4 in Wellandport and Fire Hall No. 1 in Winger. The Wellandport hall would be closed entirely and rely on Winger to cover its area.
It comes from a report made by Dillon Consulting, which took a look at the fire hall uses, equipment and manpower.
Concerns are being raised about this proposed combining of halls by Ald. Ted Hessels, who is also a volunteer firefighter of about 30 years.
“All of a sudden that could change everything,” he said. “It’s not only about fire any more, but it’s the medical, I think, is probably our biggest number of calls and where this is even more critical, yet is medical calls.”
He said within the satellite fire stations, such as the one in Wellandport, there are defibrillators, oxygen tanks and other first aid equipment that allows volunteers to respond more quickly.
Hessels said taking away that fire hall will increase response time because volunteers in that area will have to head to Winger, about 10 minutes away, to retrieve the equipment.
“At that time, their world is falling down around them,” said Gord Davies, president of the volunteer firefighters association and volunteer of more than 20 years.
“You’re in panic mode and every second seems like an hour.”
He said he wasn’t around when the four fire halls were originally planned and laid out, but he thinks it was a good decision since it covers most of Wainfleet.
“This whole end, this west end of Wainfleet, is not covered by closing this station,” he said.
Hessels said the issue of recruitment that was brought up is actually an issue across the board, not just for this hall. Because of that, he’s more interested in looking at recruitment efforts to boost the numbers as opposed to shutting down the hall.
Davies said there are probably more people in the area who would be up to volunteering if the efforts were made to reach out to them.
Both Davies and Hessels feel the consulting group is an outside party looking that might not understand the way Wainfleet’s fire department and volunteer firefighters function.
They feel they should have been consulted for this sort of matter, but Hessels said it seems like the association’s concerns are being ignored.
Davies said he is confident council will make the right decision, but Wainfleet’s residents need to know about this upcoming decision since it will affect them.
“I think council needs to know they are doing the right thing by the four stations,” Davies said. “But they need to hear it from all the people.”
Hessels said council hasn’t made a decision yet and encourages residents to voice their concerns to council.
The decision comes before council today at 7 p.m. during the regular meeting of council.