Tension in the North Westside Fire Department boils over

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Tension between members of the North Westside Volunteer Fire Department and the RDCO have reached a boiling point.

Nine members of the paid-on-call department handed in their pagers during their weekly fire practice Tuesday night.

Firefighter Sylvain L'etoile told Castanet News the action was taken by the firefighters after they learned the interim fire chief was taking a leave of absence.

Firefighters and members of the tight knit community north of Fintry have been frustrated with a lack of answers from the regional district after chief Jason Satterthwaite and his Lt. Rob Gajda were suspended indefinitely a month ago.

They have been demanding an independent, third party investigation into those suspension.

L'etoile says the handing in of pagers was meant to be just a symbolic protest.

"But, about an hour later, our IamResponding app was turned off," he said.

"We were kind of counting on still using app . We were still going to respond to serious calls...we're not going to let the community down."

Now, L'etoile says the community is left with only eight to 10 firefighters in the two halls as the province enters wildfire season.

"It leaves three or four at Station 101, and about five at Station 102.

"There is not enough to handle a real fire, and there are only three or four who have medical first responder."

Regional district area director Wayne Carson, himself a former North Westside fire chief says he believes the latest matter will eventually be dealt with either internally or during in-camera meeting of the board.

But, despite what may come out of those meetings, Carson says he hopes saner heads will ultimately prevail.

"If you're on the fire department, your job is to answer the pager," said Carson.

"Politics really doesn't belong in the fire department. They need to maintain the team, and it has to be that way moving forward, otherwise lives are in danger."

This is just the latest in a series of spats between residents in the North Westside and the regional district which led to calls for a governance review for the regional a half dozen years ago.

Carson says a governance delegation from the North Westside Community Association will make a presentation to the regional board next Monday.

"They're asking for the next step in the process, which for us would be restructuring and not incorporation.

"It gives you a picture of what your community looks like, and what your options are moving forward if you choose self-governance."