After 32 years, the Niobe Lake Fire Department continues to owe its existence to volunteers’ resourcefulness and their unwavering conviction in the service’s necessity. Although currently facing financial and volunteer shortages, the department’s origins are a sober reminder of how crucial local emergency fire services can be to rural residents.
Niobe Lake’s first fire chief, the late Ted LaBelle, was a survivor of the Dance fire tragedy of October 10, 1938, (20 km northwest of Fort Frances), which claimed many lives, including that of his mother and three siblings. He was only nine years old when he witnessed firsthand the unfathomable aftermath of that fire. Many years later, the Sapawe resident became a driving force to provide fire protection to the rural residents sprinkled along Highway 11 east of Atikokan.
In 1977 LaBelle and Sapawe’s Moe Tribe rounded up donations to purchase a weight jack to pump water and some simple fire suppression equipment. Sixteen households came up with $150 each to purchase the equipment and a converted milk truck, the department’s first fire truck. “It blossomed from there,” said Tribe, who initially served as deputy fire chief.
The next year, the boundaries extended to include Sapawe, Crystal, Fire, Gilbert and Nym lakes.
“We didn’t get a lot of calls, but we all turned out if we did,” said Tribe. Originally, the fire department made do with limited gear and training. “We just had basic gear: long rubber boots, a top coat and a helmet.”
The Niobe Lake Fire Department (NLFD) has always had its ups and downs, like the time two years after funding from the Ministry of Northern Affairs, community and Domtar Lumber donations enabled volunteers to build a fire hall, when in an ironic twist burned down (with fire truck inside).
“It was devastating,” said Tribe. “The truck was antique, too.”
Volunteers rallied, and through fundraising and various grants, built new the next year. The province bought a 500 gallon rapid response truck and firefighting suits for each crew member, and provided some some money towards the purchase of an additional 1,800 gallon ‘pumper’ truck. The truck’s portable tank can be used to provide continual water to the rapid response truck.
Expansion
Beginning last fall, the NLFD service area expanded to include the Dawson Trail, Eva and Marion Lake areas and serves 253 households and businesses, a move that nearly doubled the membership. The department responds to calls in its service area which now runs east from Nym to French lake, south to Eva and Marion lakes, and north to Hoist Narrows at Marmion Lake. “We’ll go wherever we’re called,” said department trainer Matt Eady.
The upside of the amalgamation is that “we’ve got some good firefighters” from the Eva/Marion area, said the department’s vice-president and firefighter Lanny Cross.
Costs have risen this past year, however. Aside from provincial funding for fuel for the 500 gallon fire truck, “We rely 90% on our membership dues, auctions, the [fish fry] and bake sale [fundraisers],” said fire chief Gerald Thurier. Costs include heating, hydro, phone, equipment, training and a yearly $6,000 insurance bill.
To remain a recognized department under the auspices of the Ontario Fire Marshall’s office, firefighters must take part in continual training, which is costly, says Cross. A recent First Aid course for 10 of its 18 member crew cost the department $1,000. Fortunately, some members are employees of organizations which provide First Aid training, which saves the department money.
The NLFD is regularly invited to take part in exercises with Atikokan Fire Rescue, such as a recent three-day pumping course. “If it’s something we can share in, we’ll pay our share,” said Cross.
Trainer Matt Eady routinely attends ‘train the trainer’ courses in Fort Frances to continue providing training to the rest of the fire crew. Referring to a provincial manual, Eady provides theory training and practical fire emergency simulations for firefighters. Nearly every second Sunday morning he takes volunteers through the ropes of staged scenarios such as vehicle or fuel fires or manoevering through a smoke-filled building in complete darkness.
That very scenario became a recent real life emergency for the crew, and made crew members thankful for a new provincial requirement for the purchase of head lamps for all firefighter’s helmets. The headlamps were costly but provided the extra illumination and removed the need to juggle flashlights and other equipment during a February 1 fire at the Sapawe mill. Members had to navigate through smoke and darkness to locate a Bobcat loader which had caught fire and damaged internal walls and wiring.
Cross said that without the department’s timely response to the 7 a.m. fire, the entire plant, currently not operating, would have likely been destroyed. (The cause of the fire is unknown, but prompted the crew to conduct a familiarization tour of the mill, especially the many new Eva/Marion members).
Emergency calls are few, usually less than one house fire per year. The department coordinates with the MNR and the Ministry of Transportation if called by either ministry, as in a hydro line fire at Crystal Lake two summers ago, where the department’s role was to ensure residents’ property was protected from the nearby forest blaze.
When the mill was operating, small brush pile fires were common, and there was the occasional fire on a logging truck somewhere up a dirt road. “We’ve had real good practice putting wood fires out,” jokes Thurier.
Community support
Receiving a call-out any hour of the day or night “is an adrenaline rush for sure,” said member Rod Swanson. In the past, the crew was routinely called to the scene for highway vehicle accidents, and would assist in extricating people from vehicles. Now, with the introduction of 911 service here, the fire department could no longer afford the necessary vehicle extrication training (modern vehicles present new logistical challenges and potential fire hazards).
House fires are more common in the winter, the season which also provides the biggest challenge for water access. “Water is our biggest problem: access to it and the amount of it,” said Eady.
There are plenty of other challenges that can affect a fire crew’s ability to fight a house fire – such as sufficient road access for the fire truck to get to the home or a water source, including some that would typically never cross a homeowner’s mind, said Cross.
“People don’t think ‘How would they get a fire truck in here?’ They also don’t tell us when their property is sold or changes ownership, but we don’t have access to tax records and have no way of knowing.”
Fire department member Jim Mills has taken the initiative to “drive to each and every property [in the new Eva/Marion territory] and now we’re in the process of making a new map and numbering system,” said Eady.
On the department’s current wish list is a pager system for all volunteer firefighters, “because we’re not always available even in our own yards [if we’re not near our phone],” said Cross.
Such spending isn’t in the books right now however, because simply maintaining the fire hall and services has become an almost impossible struggle, said Cross. “When we go out of town for training, we see how out-of-date and inadequate our equipment is compared to what other departments have, what we should have,” he said. “This year, we couldn’t order some of the stuff we wanted for our fire department because we didn’t a budget big enough to carry us through the year to heat and hydro. We have just doubled the fire department [size], but insurance costs went up and some aren’t paying.”
In fact, only 69% of members have paid their dues ($50 per year for a household and $80 for a business) this year, prompting the department to send out second notices. Possible reasons include some residents’ are seasonal and may be away for the winter, some are working or living away from home, and new members may be unaware of their obligation.
Money struggles aside however, the department will carry on as usual and is already planning its summer fish fry and auction fundraiser. As in the early days of the department, a core group continues to recognize the value of that service began with a weight jack and a milk truck, and a desire to prevent further fire tragedy.
“It’s a mindset issue,” said Cross. “You have to say ‘this is important and I need to be involved.’”
Comments on this entry are closed.