The demands of Highway 63 have proved too much for another northern fire department.
The 16-member Plamondon volunteer fire department suspended service along the highway that links Edmonton and Fort McMurray on Dec. 1 in an effort to prevent burnout, said Mitch Newton, manager of protective services for Lac La Biche County.
Plamondon, about 200 kilometres northwest of Edmonton, took on sole responsibility for a 150-kilometre stretch of Highway 63 in July, one month after the Wandering River fire department suspended highway service.
In 2009, the Wandering River department had 52 calls for service on the highway.
When Plamondon took over, its volunteers saw their traditional monthly workload of eight hours each double, and in some cases triple, Newton said.
The decision was prompted by the onset of winter driving conditions and a failure to reach a service agreement with Athabasca County, which would see Plamondon alternate Highway 63 responsibility with Athabasca departments on a monthly basis.
The suspension means the remaining fire departments will be spread thinner and response times will be slower, said Arnie Derko, former fire chief for Grassland Fire Department.
Derko, who remains a member with Grassland, stepped down from the position in August after 10 years when the job became too stressful.
Early Wednesday morning, the Grassland department spent eight hours covering a collision between two semi-trailers on Highway 63. A lumber truck lost control and slammed into a tanker made to carry ammonia hydroxide.
The tanker was empty but the truck's cab caught fire. Derko said the crash highlights how regional fire departments are expected to respond to hazardous material calls when they don't have the proper equipment.
And after working all night on the highway, volunteer firefighters still have to go to their day jobs.
"You get burnout because you're not resting," Derko said.
"If you're at horrific scenes, there's other things. It becomes a lot to ask of your regular Joe to go out and do this -- to be on this highway."
Regional fire departments have mutual aid agreements with surrounding areas, and the loss of one has a domino effect on others. When Grassland is out at collisions on Highway 63, they have to rely on the Boyle Fire Department to protect their community.
Trent West, fire commissioner for the Alberta Emergency Management Agency, said that's a common occurrence across the province, and is the reason mutual aid agreements exist.
He said Wandering River brought the issue with Highway 63 to light in June, and the AEMA was working with fire departments to improve volunteer recruitment and retention, and was encouraging departments to share successful strategies.
Derko said the province's efforts weren't good enough.
"They say they'll help us with recruiting, but these are small towns," he said. "Where are we supposed to get the people for recruiting?"
Brian Cornforth, president of the Alberta Fire Chiefs Association, said the province is expecting too much of volunteer firefighters.
"We're struggling to maintain systems with volunteers, and they expect these people to take on all these extra responsibilities," he said. "We need to take a more serious look at this."
Cornforth said the province's 10,000 volunteer firefighters struggle to find funding for training and equipment. While West said the province has grants for emergency services and gives funding to municipalities, Cornforth said that money has been drying up over the years.
Volunteers are required to have higher levels of training for highway response than in the past, including traffic control and extracting people from vehicles. But while training costs have gone up, Cornforth said funding has gone down.
"It's extremely discouraging when you're a volunteer and you have to buy your own equipment to serve your community," he said.
Read more: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/life/Highway+takes+toll+volunteer+fire+crew/3956549/story.html#ixzz18InN1JFZ
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