Sundre Fire Department's spring reruitment drive extended

SUNDRE — In an effort to not only find new members but also ensure recruits are committed and able to meet a minimum level of service, the local fire department has updated how firefighters are enlisted.

“We’ve been trying to get more of a structured and formal recruitment process than we had in the past. It used to be sort of people walked in off the street,” said Dan Corbett, the Sundre Fire Department’s fire prevention officer.

“We’re really trying to professionalize the recruitment process and try to get those recruits that we know are going to A) stick around and B) show up regularly. Because in the past we’ve had recruits who will come get their pager and we don’t see them for a year,” Corbett, who has five years of service under his belt, said April 22 during an interview at the fire hall.

He was joined by Nicole Toth, safety and assistant training officer with 10 years of service at the department, who said that even in the past when there were more members on the roster, that didn’t necessarily translate into bigger turnouts for emergency responses.

“That’s one of the reasons we’re trying to formalize the recruitment process,” added Corbett. “We now have an interview process within the recruitment, which we never had before, (and) a fitness assessment as well.”

Responding to a question about concerns shared among some members of the community that the Sundre Fire Department is overly dependent on mutual aid assistance from neighbouring departments, Toth said, “The standard protocol for dispatch is to dispatch two departments to any structure fire in any community in our county.”

In other words, regardless of whether the Sundre department has 10 or 100 members, mutual aid is called upon by default in the event of a structure fire as a precaution that could potentially save critical time.

“That’s become standard,” said Toth. “Mutual aid being there doesn’t mean we don’t have enough (responders).”

When responding to a structure fire, the department doesn’t necessarily immediately know the severity of the situation. So, the standard operating procedure is to automatically call for additional help that can always be stood down later once the emergency has been assessed, as opposed to waiting until arriving at the scene before requesting additional resources.

“That’s a typical response; that’s a forward-thinking response,” said Toth.

Corbett added that larger halls such as the Olds Fire Department’s have more resources simply as a result of a much larger population and tax base.

Mutual aid is also a two-way street, as even a larger department with more resources will when responding to a structure fire also request mutual aid from the nearest department as a precaution.

“If they ask us for an engine, we’ll try and fill that engine,” said Toth.

The department is now conducting two recruitment drives a year — one in the fall and another in the spring.

“This current recruitment drive is going to be running until the end of May,” said Corbett, adding the plan was initially to go until the end of April but that the decision was made to extend the timeline to offer potentially interested volunteers an opportunity to apply before the summer.  

Of course that being said, anyone is welcome to apply any time. But the department is putting on two recruit classes per year, so someone who applies outside of an official recruitment drive would have to wait until the next class gets started.

However, they could in that situation still drop by the fire hall during weekly Wednesday night training sessions to get a feel for whether they think they’d be a fit, said Toth.

As Sundre is situated in an urban forestry interface with a large coverage area of 3,800 km2, members train in a variety of disciplines from interior firefighting and vehicle extrication to back country rescues and wildland fire response, she said.

The department also occasionally trains in coordination with Sundre Search and Rescue, the RCMP and Alberta forestry crews.

While members as per standards must meet an annual minimum level of participation in training and emergency responses, the expectations are not onerous, she said, adding accommodations can also be made in the event of, for example, a leave of absence.

“We make it as flexible as possible, but we want to make sure we’re upholding professional standards,” Corbett said.

As of late April, the department had 21 members including new recruits, he said.

“We’ve got four from the last recruitment that have been able to stay on,” said Toth.

While there’s no specific goal, she said the more members there are on the roster not only helps ensure a rotation so a core crew doesn’t get burned out, but also to reduce the impact when a member ends up stepping down.

“We have turnover for sure,” said Corbett, adding careers and lives take people in different directions. “So, it’s good for us to constantly be recruiting and getting new people.”