INNISFAIL – For many years, Mike Thomson had number 665 on the front of his firefighter helmet.
Below it read “Captain”, and then his surname. He was a proud volunteer paid on-call firefighter for the Innisfail Fire Department (IFD).
But as of June 7 it changed in a big way. He is now the first-ever full-time assistant chief of the department; tasked to assist fire Chief Gary Leith.
He is also just the second full-time firefighter, after Leith, for the department.
Thomson’s big role is to provide work relief for his hardworking fire chief.
“With Mike on board it certainly provides additional resilience which we much needed and it takes some of the workload off me for maintaining operational readiness. So, yes; it's been a long time coming and much needed,” said Leith.
“Mike already had intimate knowledge of the organization and the workings of fire departments and brings a plethora of skills from project management to being a primary care paramedic.”
Thomson, 43, moves into the IFD offices after serving the past 12 years as a volunteer paid on-call Innisfail firefighter. Before Innisfail, he also served four years with the Penhold Fire Department.
Before arriving at the Innisfail Fire Department, Thomson was a primary care paramedic for seven years with Medavie Health Services West, which serves Innisfail, Ponoka, Wetaskiwin and Red Deer County.
With those emergency response credentials he also has management experience, which became an attractive skill set when Leith began looking for an assistant chief last spring.
“It’s kind of the natural progression coming through the volunteer side of things. Starting on the volunteer side, I've worked into a captain role, which I had done for quite a few years,” he said. “I used to do some management work prior to getting into EMS. I worked for an environmental and safety firm doing environmental and safety consulting and so I had quite a bit of management experience through that.
“I had the emergency training they were looking for but also the management experience, so that kind of led me right into it.”
At the operational level, Thomson will still respond to general emergency calls, while on the management side he’s tasked to record calls and data, and hopefully be involved with fire safety codes and inspections.
Most importantly, he will also be engaging with the public more at events, including the local schools.
“I spend more time working with the public directly on non-emergency type roles, which I didn't generally need to get too involved with as a captain,” said Thomson. “And then management of all the personnel and maintenance and testing that we need to do, and keeping all of our equipment ready to go.”
Over the past weeks since June, Thomson has had ample opportunities to engage the public, such as the Canada Day fireworks and the recent annual bike rodeo.
Most importantly, he has provided much needed relief for the fire chief.
“It’s to do exactly that. One of the few titles that very aptly describes the role is to assist in all of the chief duties,” said Thomson. “Anything that Gary would typically work on when he’s not here, I would step in and kind of lead things.”
