Lack of training, motivation, serious detriments to Nunavut fire departments: Rankin Inlet fire chief

According to one Nunavut fire chief, there are a lot more challenges to fighting fires in the territory than battling severe weather conditions.

Rankin Inlet Fire Chief Mark Wyatt said one of the biggest challenges being faced right now, when it comes to fighting fires in the territory, is the state of affairs in Nunavut's Fire Marshal's Office.

He said the Fire Marshal's Office is down to two people right now, an acting deputy fire marshal and a fire marshal, both of whom are brand new.

“They're doing a great job, struggling to fill up the Fire Marshal's Office,” said Wyatt. “A few years ago, they had a training officer, assistant fire marshals in all the communities, and an excellent fire marshal, but they were all working in safety services at the time and there were problems with upper management.

“They whittled their way down to two people and, because of that, it transferred into training issues, or lack thereof. Years ago, there used to be fairly significant training, running two Level One courses and two Level Two courses among others — there were a lot more training courses being offered than what's happening now.

“And they were probably teaching about 15 or 16 people per class. Now the Nunavut Municipal Training Organization is, basically, farming everything out. And, while it's still good training, it's limited to one course per year of Level One and Level Two, pumps, Fire Service Instructor One and a fire officer's workshop. And they only hit about eight people in each course.

“When you think about the fact we have 25 communities in Nunavut and we have fire departments in all of them — and if you're only training eight firefighters a year — you're not doing a very good job of training the territory.”

Wyatt said training is a big issue in a lot of the communities — not totally because of the lack of training, but because of the lack of training and motivation — resulting in a lot of turnover among volunteers.

He said Naujaat has no fire department now because everybody quit, and the Fire Marshal's Office is trying to rebuild that department.

“The Fire Marshal's Office has moved back over to emergency services. They're out of safety services, so I expect positive things to come out of that office. I expect there will be a rebuild there that, within a year or two, will result in things becoming much better for the firefighters in Nunavut.

“But, nonetheless, right now, that's one of the biggest challenges that everybody has. Even when training is robust and up and running, it's terribly substandard in the North compared to anywhere down south. They don't train to a National Fire Protection Agencies (NFPA) standard. For example, a Level One and Level Two course they're running in Rankin Inlet is eight days for each level.

“If you wanted to take a proper certified NFPA Level One and Level Two course down south, that's a minimum of 16 weeks. If you look at provinces like Alberta and British Columbia, the government and the Office of the Fire Marshal in their communities have developed standards for what fire departments can do.

“And, if you are not trained to a Level Two standard, you can't go inside a burning building.”

Wyatt said there are also departments that can only fight fires defensively, which means from the outside of the building, not going into the building at all. And, he said, if you do, that's big trouble for everyone.

“That's why down south you're held to all of these standards. One of my goals in Rankin Inlet is to get to the point where we're training and certifying firefighters, so that they can potentially go south and get jobs and do things effectively.

“When you get into the combination of a lack of training and a lack of firefighters, that's where you get a lot of buildings burning to the ground. And that happens in most communities.

“Even in Iqaluit, where they have 22 paid firefighters and two or three fire chiefs, they still run into problems where they can't handle some of the fires.”

For more from Wyatt on the challenges facing firefighters in Nunavut, please see the July 24 edition of Kivalliq News.