CALGARY – Calgary’s Fire Chief is speaking out amid criticism that his department isn’t helping in the search for a man presumed drowned in Chestermere Lake.
33-year-old Richis Bondo Kutumbay, a father of seven, fell out of a tube on the lake Saturday night and has not been seen since.
Fire crews from Chestermere and Strathmore as well as the RCMP were called out for the rescue and subsequent recovery attempt.
A scuba dive team from Edmonton was originally brought in to search for his body but were called back home Sunday night.
An RCMP dive team from Vancouver resumed the search on Tuesday.
Many are questioning why the Calgary Fire Department has not assisted in recovery efforts.
RCMP tell Global News they have not contacted the CFD due to standard protocols; the service will call on the Calgary Fire Department during a rescue effort but not during a recovery effort due to cost and time availability.
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“We look at other things like is the dive team available to attend, to be on site for an extended period of time. Some of these searches are done within an hour and some of these searches take days,” said Sgt. Patrick Webb.
The Fire Department says they did offer their services on Saturday but were not needed.
Chief Bruce Burrell admits the CFD’s services are twice as expensive as other jurisdictions in the area because crews charge double overtime when they respond to incidents outside city limits.
However, it’s denying claims by a CFD diver that the victim may have been saved if they had been called upon.
Burrell says there was not enough time for a rescue in this instance.
The Department is now investigating the unauthorized comments by the employee.
“Some of the allegations they made, I can’t possibly get a boat crew out to Chestermere in 10 minutes,” said Chief Burrell.
“When you offer inaccurate information to the media representing yourself as the speaking voice of how the Calgary Fire Department operations, that is very negative and can be potentially very damaging to the organization so we will be conducting a full investigation.”
The local fire department in Chestermere does not have a water rescue boat or dive team on site.
Mayor Patricia Matthews says neither is required because there has not been a drowning on the lake in more than 10 years.
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