Volunteer firefighters receive training, but ask for respect

REGINA – On average, fire departments deal with one major structure fire a year. For volunteer firefighters in rural areas that number could be even lower.

President of the Saskatchewan Volunteer Firefighters Association, Doug Lapchuk says they need training because it is a skill like any other.

“If you don’t use it, you lose it.”

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Volunteers in Saskatchewan typically have full time jobs as well because the on-call positions do not pay very much, if at all.

Lapchuk is also Chief at the Balgonie Fire Department, where volunteers get paid $15 per call, no matter how long it lasts.

It is important to keep up to date on training because attending a real life blaze, “is life or death.”

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“It’s as realistic as it gets. We encourage them to break windows, learn how to do hydraulic ventilation,” Lapchuk said.

Problem is not all of them get the luxury of training. Like many things in life, it costs money.

This weekend long training has a price tag of $200 per person, and most are paying out of pocket.

“I’m very fortunate, we fundraised and put money aside to be able to send firefighters to both sessions every year,” volunteer firefighter Celeste Maltais said.

The Saskatchewan Volunteer Firefighters Association was only founded 26 years ago. Mark Coppicus and his wife wanted all volunteers to feel supported.

“The word volunteer might be in front of our names, but we are very, very professional people in this day and age,” Coppicus said.

Volunteers arrive at the same graphic scenes that any full time first responder would. Firefighters are often the first at a scene and in a small town, the affects of PTSD may hit harder.

Nathan Rust has been a volunteer at the Assiniboia Fire Dept. for eight years. The town has a population just 2,000.

“Our department was hit really bad. This fall there was a younger guy in town, was killed in a quad accident. So responding to a call and its one of your buddies… for us it was hard,” he said.

The SVFFA has collected $5,000 for members to collectively spend on counseling, but they have also had to get creative.

“We also have 18 trained volunteer firefighters that are now peer councilors that can attend at a moment’s notice,” Lapchuk said.

However, in hopes of not stretching their volunteers too thin, they want the public to know they are always in favor of donations, or to Premier Brad Wall: tax credits.