Norman Wells fire services in place after 'operational pause' declared earlier this month

After its fire department was placed on "operational pause" in early March taking community members and some members of the volunteer fire department by surprise the town of Norman Wells, N.W.T.,will make fire protection services compliant with territorial standards within five weeks.

The town will also make the status of fire protection publicly available at all times.

"All in all, it's an aggressive five-week plan," said Allen Stanzell, municipal administrator forNorman Wells.

A territorial assessment found the department had no standard operating procedures and was using uncertified equipment. Firefighters were also found to have had insufficient training.

The assessment was conducted by the territory's Department of Municipal and Community Affairs and delivered to the town in December 2017.

'Operational pause'

More than two months later and following further consultations with the department, the town government placed volunteer firefighters on an "operational pause" on March 6.

Firefighters were asked to return their pagers and emergency calls to the fire department went unanswered.

Since then, the town wouldn't answer CBC's repeated requests for the status of fire protection in the community.

At a public meeting held March 19, the town confirmed that the pause was related to the department's assessment. It then began a series of public meetings with community members and N.W.T. Fire Marshal Chucker Dewar.

Now that those meetings are complete, Stanzell insists that contrary to earlier reports, the town was always operating at the same level of fire protection even when volunteer firefighters were relieved of the pagers they use to receive emergency call outs, and when calls to the community'semergency phone number went unanswered.

"The bottom line during that period is that if there was an incident in the community, there would have been a response," said Stanzell. "There would have been some rallying of community members, I'm sure."

When asked who would have answered the call in the event of a fire, Stanzell replied, "I don't have an answer for you We're past it and looking forward."

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No evacuation, emergency plan in place

Peter Spilchak, president of the Norman Wells Chamber of Commerce, said he was "not satisfied" by the town's management of the situation.

"The town administration did not think this whole situation out thoroughly," said Spilchak.

"[There was] no emergency plan in place in case there was a fire which the fire department was not able to respond to [and] no evacuation plan if the fire should have spread to multiple buildings."

We're going to do better at it next time.-Allen Stanzell

The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs and the Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission (WSCC) make non-binding recommendations about minimum operating standards for each level of fire protection, from crowd control to full rescue services.

The Norman Wells fire department is now operating according to a "defensive" standard, meaning it cannot enter structures to conduct rescues and must extinguish fires from the outside only.

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To be compliant with minimum standards for that level of service, the town will need to pay for new training and certification for firefighters and their equipment. But the community can elect to operate above their recommended level at any time.

"They're not obligated by MACA to implement any corrective actions that MACA recommends," said Dewar, the territory's fire marshal.

"It's really the municipal council in discussion with residents that determines what level of service a community fire department will apply."

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The WSCCcan issue a stop-workorder in the event that a fire department's non-compliance with standards poses an "imminent hazard" to firefighter safety, says Jacqueline Mo, acting manager of communications for the WSCC.

Fire services would not necessarily stop, but the town or department may face prosecution in the event of an injury.

Fire service will continue, says administrator

Stanzell said the community decided not to suspend fire services while they achieve compliance over the next five weeks.

"[A firefighter's] instinct is to always want to help, so they were willing to work with us," said Stanzell.

Stanzell also said the town would commit to informing residents through mail, Facebook posts and the town's website if the fire department's operational status changes again.

"Any experience like this is a learning opportunity," said Stanzell. "We're going to do better at it next time."

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