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SAANICHNEWS Friday, October 10, 2014
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FIRED UP
Saanich Fire to swear in eight new recruits Daniel Palmer News staff
Dep. Chief Stephen Hanna remembers the ghostly sight of hundreds of books still pulsating red on their shelves in the aftermath of the 1989 Nellie McClung library fire. In the thick smoke, Hanna – then just a novice Saanich firefighter – could only make out the boots of a figure manning a fire hose in the centre of the smouldering mess. “There was my captain, standing amongst it all, calmly spraying water,” Hanna says. “That image just stuck with me.” In the coming months, eight new Saanich Fire Department recruits will likely experience similar moments, now that they’ve completed an intensive six-week training session to join the 120-member department. The cohort includes five replacements due to retirements and three new recruits – including the department’s first two female firefighters – to serve the diverse 103-kilometre District of Saanich. “We haven’t had an intake this large since 1971, and a lot of it has to do with attrition,” said Fire Chief Mike Burgess. “We’ve seen a lot of movement in the last five years, I think we’ve had 27 retirements. So our department is quite young now.” The title of Firefighter is misleading, Hanna says, as only 30 per cent of the department’s 4,100 incident responses last year were directly related to fire.
Don Denton/News staff
New Saanich firefighters Bonnie Fiala and Phil Reaume practice their rope work behind the No. 2 Firehall on Elk Lake Drive. The two are in their sixth and final week of training before they join the Saanich Fire Department. Car accidents, hazardous material spills, medical and marine emergencies are just some of the calls that require new firefighters to arrive on the job with a small mountain of certification and training. “A lot of people start this job believing they’re going to go from fire to fire, but what they discover is it’s hours of boredom made up of minutes of sheer terror,” Hanna said. “We should really be called Saanich emergency services.” Experience and maturity are now significant factors in choosing new recruits as well. This year’s novices range in age from their late-20s to 39-year-old Brian Swanson, who served in both the military and as a Saanich police officer before making the switch to Saanich fire. “It was pretty close to a year where I was considering the right decision for me and my family,” says Swanson, on a lunch break from rope rescue training at Fire Hall No. 1, behind the municipal hall. “I already had all the requirements from my previous career, but just for simple career enjoyment and lifestyle, it just fit. I’m ecstatic to start. I can’t wipe the smile off my face.” Heather Jaques, a former flank who twice
Daniel Palmer/News staff
Saanich Firefighter Heather Jaques is among the new recruits. She represented Canada at the 2010 Women’s Rugby World Cup. attended the Rugby World Cup with Canada’s national rugby union team, turned her drive to a different competition last year when she decided to compete against 130 candidates for one of eight spots at Saanich FD. Jaques, a Saskatchewan native, spent
some time in the construction industry before a fire fighter at her gym recommended she look into the field. “After I retired from rugby, I didn’t really know where to go,” Jaques says. “I’ve always been very team-oriented, physically active, I like working outside, and this kind of hands-on career really appealed to me.” Whatever stigma may exist about trailblazing in a department full of men is brushed off by Jaques as a relic of a past time. “We had an open house a few weeks ago, where a bunch of veterans told us how happy they are to see us in the department,” she says. All firefighters start in fire suppression – two day, two nights, four off – and some can spend the majority of their careers in that role. Once in, firefighters can move into staff development, communications, emergency management, mechanical teams and more, Hanna says. “It’s really the candidates themselves who raise the bar, they’re all thirsty for the job,” Burgess says. See Two year hiring process on A6
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