Stretched Wainfleet fire department to get deputy chief

Wainfleet’s fire department, stretched perilously thin to the point where firefighters can no longer enter homes to fight most fires, is getting a much-needed infusion at its senior leadership level.

The township’s new fire chief, Lee Smith, made it clear to township politicians Tuesday night that the status quo isn’t acceptable and he needs help. He’ll get that, now that township council has given the green light for the hiring of a new deputy chief at a cost of about $90,000 a year.

Politicians had already approved the new position in the township’s 2018 budget, but at a previous council meeting they put the hiring process on hold and asked Smith for a further report justifying the need.

Ald. Betty Konc said she was “torn” over the issue, aghast at having to put out so much money in a township with a small budget but fully aware the fire department is struggling to keep up the administrative demands for training, records keeping, recruiting volunteers and complying with the vast and evergrowing number and complexity of provincial regulations applied to fire departments in response to lessons learned from deadly or serious fires.

“I understand where you’re coming from, the workload is horrendous,” Konc told Smith, a retired Niagara Falls fire chief with a hefty resume.

“The department has been in disarray for quite a while,” she said. “We all know that. That fault lies with council and I must apologize to the community for that. We’ve made some errors in judgment.”

But she wondered how Wainfleet could possibly afford another $90,000 salary on an ongoing basis.

Ald. Ted Hessels, the only member of council to vote Tuesday night against filling the deputy chief position, called filling the position permanently a “scary” proposition and asked if doing so on a temporary basis would allow Smith to play catch-up on his administrative duties.

“It just feels like too big of a step for us to be taking,” he said.

Smith, who is on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week, said it must be a long-term position.

“This position and managing the fire department isn’t a onetime thing where you get over the hump and you’re fine and you can do smooth sailing,” he said.

“I’m keeping my head above water right now … but I can’t do much else than that.”

Smith’s new report said the township’s fire department isn’t even meeting minimum requirements, to the point where lack of training and other weaknesses mean firefighters can’t carry out interior firefighting.

If a pot on a stove caught fire, firefighters could briefly step in and try to knock it down with a fast attack. But if the fire spread in the home’s kitchen, they’d have no choice but to back out and leave the house, said Smith.

“Until we can get ourselves back qualified … we are only going to be doing limited interior” firefighting, he said. “The public needs to know that as well as council so that you understand where we’re at right now.

“It’s not what the public expects.”

Smith said he has an “aggressive” plan to reverse that by as early as 2019, but said he needs a deputy to help him with his immense workload.

The department’s weaknesses have resulted in other Niagara town and city fire departments losing confidence in Wainfleet’s ability to provide emergency fire help in other municipalities under a mutual aid agreement those departments have, said Smith.

The department, which a consultant said should have 60 volunteer firefighters, is now down to just 35 volunteers, with several senior officer positions vacant. The department’s records tracking firefighters’ training are also scant, leaving the township in a position of liability if the province’s ministry of labour demanded to see those records in the event someone is hurt during a call, said Smith.

Right now, the chief is trying to fill the deputy position from within the ranks of existing firefighters. Ald. Richard Dykstra asked if looking to fill it externally might mean finding a more qualified candidate.

“I believe we have people who can fill that role” internally, Smith said. “I certainly want to give our own firefighters the first shot at it.”

Konc and Dykstra asked if Smith’s workload could be brought a manageable level by filling vacant positions such as platoon chiefs and creating a fire prevention officer position instead of hiring a deputy chief. But Smith said he doesn’t want to dump even more work on volunteers, given the low number of them available to respond to fires.

Ald. Terry Gilmore, stressing how fortunate the township was to land a chief of Smith’s quality and experience, said the township could always revisit the deputy chief ’s position down the road in the event a new chief is eventually hired.

Dykstra, Konc, Gilmore and Mayor April Jeffs approved proceeding with the hiring of a deputy chief.