Carol Baldwin, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Wakaw Recorder
From his hiring last spring, Rosthern Fire and Rescue Chief Bill Doran has been focused on improving the department’s response capabilities and the safety of its members.
He wanted to see Rosthern Fire and Rescue grow to be the best it could be by providing the firefighters with the right tools, equipment, and training to do their best work.
“I am pleased [with] how fantastic the firefighters are in this department. We have some real good people doing some real good work,” Doran said shortly after he was hired. “I look forward to working with and leading them. When our community needs us, we will be here to serve at the highest capacity.”
In the past nine months, Rosthern Fire and Rescue (RFR) have joined with neighbouring departments from Hepburn, Waldheim, Laird, Duck Lake, and Hague in training opportunities for both experienced firefighters and new recruits. Each month new recruits from all the participating departments take part in a Fire School where they are trained in the skills established as the minimum standards by the government. Comprehensive training programs ensure firefighters have the skills needed for safer and more efficient response.
The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) released the Fire Service Minimum Standards Guide in May 2022. The guide was created by the SPSA, in consultation with the Saskatchewan Association of Fire Chiefs, the Saskatchewan Volunteer Fire Fighters Association, and the Provincial Training Standards Committee, with a focus on making firefighting safer in Saskatchewan by developing a written set of minimum standards for three levels of service: defensive, offensive, or full operations, based on training and equipment capacities.
All provinces in western Canada as well as the Yukon and Ontario have a minimum standards program for their fire services. These minimum standards help departments and associations ensure they continue to respond to fire events based on their communities’ specific needs.
These Fire School and cooperative training events resulted in a Saskatchewan Municipal Award for “Regional Cooperation: Fire Chief Collaboration/School, EMO Committee, and CSO Program” within the Twin Rivers District including the Towns of Duck Lake, Hauge, Hepburn, Rosthern, and Waldheim and the RM’s of Rosthern No. 403 and Duck Lake No. 463.
The Saskatchewan Municipal Award news release announcing the winners reads:
“The seven municipalities of the Twin Rivers District have worked together on three major initiatives to provide essential municipal services to their region. These initiatives enhance professional human resources, ensuring competent and proactive management of Fire and Rescue Services, the Emergency Measures Organization, and a Community Safety Officer program. Through shared responsibility and strong inter-municipal partnerships, the municipalities have created multiple successful, cost-sharing programs that directly address the needs of the region.”
Chief Doran believes good leaders recognize the importance of listening. He spent the first few months learning how the RFR operated, its strengths and dynamics, the opinions of its members, and areas they felt they wanted to improve.
Out of that listening and learning, have emerged relationship-building events with neighbouring departments, a recruitment drive that has grown the number of volunteer members to 20, and the launch of a fundraising campaign to help pay for a wildland firetruck.
Standard fire engines are not designed to go ‘off-road.’ They are heavy specialized vehicles that are not capable of chasing grassfires or navigating through scrub brush to bring water and equipment to fight a bushfire. Currently, firefighters battle these types of blazes on foot with a water-carrying tote as a backpack.
To better equip his members to fight those types of fires safely, Chief Doran wanted a truck specifically designed to get members where they needed to be to fight a wildland fire quickly and safely, while also providing a safe exit if conditions deteriorate. However, life is expensive, a fact that the chief has had at the forefront of his considerations since taking this position and recent economic events have made it more so, and putting the entire burden of funding another piece of firefighting equipment on taxpayers was something he wanted to avoid.
An idea began to take shape last fall and came together in the past month. Trade-Up-for-a-Truck is based on Kyle MacDonald’s 2005 paper clip trade-up that resulted in him being offered a house in Kipling, Sask. Since acquiring the house in 2006, MacDonald has traded it (not sold, of course) to a restaurant owner, who has converted the house into the Paperclip Cottage Café, but the concept itself is one that people remember and, in this case, is what RFR are trying to emulate.
Starting with a fire department sticker and patch, the first trade came from Jamie Coutts, host of the Growing Up Fire podcast, who was in Rosthern on March 1 to learn firsthand from Chief Bill and department members about the initiative.
The end goal is to have a vehicle with a cab large enough to transport a crew of firefighters, a lift kit to make it capable of traversing rough terrain, and a push bar on the front for breaking through brush. As word of the fundraiser is spreading, businesses, the fire service community, and private individuals are reaching out to offer things to trade and other donations.
For example, Brandt Industries in Rosthern donated a winch and basket after the firefighters worked a casino night and Christmas party for them. These will be installed on the truck before it goes into service.
Items that may not be considered for the trade-up campaign can still generate funds for the fire department because ultimately, they will be auctioned at the end of the campaign. Individuals interested in offering items for trade can reach out to the RF&R through its Facebook page “Trade Up for a Fire Truck RF&R”.
During last weekend’s Winter Festival in Rosthern, Kings Chicken and Pizza ran a “Wings for Wildland” event with all proceeds going to the Wildland Fire Truck initiative. For a dollar a wing, patrons could support the initiative, and they did, selling Kings out of more than 1200 wings.
The goal of all firefighters is to get all the members home safe. The addition of a wildland fire truck will help meet that goal when the volunteers are called out to rural areas be it for a field fire at harvest or a grass fire propelled by wind into scrub brush.
Any initiative that adds another layer of safety for those who “race in when everyone else is racing out” is something most people can see value in. Watch for updates on the ‘trade-ups’ on the department’s Facebook page and around town for other fundraising efforts… the more money raised, the less money will need to be taken from the budget.
