Beer-consuming firefighters behind firing: chief

Wednesday, December 16, 2009 CBC NEWS:

The former chief of the Squamish fire department says he was fired from his job for trying to put a stop to firefighters drinking alcohol at the city's two fire stations between emergency calls. Ray Saurette said in a statement Wednesday that he was fired "without cause" by the district's municipal council on Tuesday. He had been fire chief in Squamish for nine years.

Alcohol is readily available inside the station's lounges, and it's left up to each crewmember to decide if they have had too much to drink before going on a call, Saurette said. He said he attempted to implement a policy one year ago to prohibit alcohol consumption at the fire halls. "Several volunteer firefighters and retirees took exception to the policy, and banded together in an effort to overturn this directive," Saurette said in his statement. "Squamish Council has since given the go-ahead for firefighters to consume alcohol at the fire halls on the premise of retaining volunteers," he said.

The Squamish fire department is made up of five paid staff and 60 volunteers. The department's website said they attend approximately 480 incidents per year. "Firefighters often abandoned their beer in the firefighters lounge to jump on a fire truck. "When there is a fire in town or a vehicle crash on the highway there is no way to know if the person coming to your rescue has just put their beer down before they climbed on the fire truck," Saurette said. A report Wednesday quoted Squamish mayor Greg Gardner as saying Saurette did not have a good working relationship with the district's firefighters. He made no further comment about Saurette's termination. Gardner also did not deny the presence of alcohol at the stations, but said firefighting was a stressful activity and the men needed a place to decompress.

Squamish, a municipality of 15,000, is about 65 kilometres north of Vancouver, and is situated on the one highway route to Whistler. "For the citizens of Squamish, their guests and for the countless people who will be travelling through our community in the coming months, I am sickened by the fact that life safety in this community has been compromised by partisan politics," Saurette said. He will be replaced by deputy chief Mike Adams.