If Merritt suffers a major fire, it can continue to count on Logan Lake firefighters to lend a hand thanks to a Mutual Aid Agreement approved by council at Jan. 25’s regular council meeting.
“Under extenuating circumstances such as the occurrence of a major conflagration, hazardous materials incident or simultaneous emergencies, resources beyond what the City of Merritt maintains may be required,” read a report to council from Merritt Fire Rescue Department’s fire chief Dave Tomkinson. “At those times our city relies on neighbouring communities for assistance in the form of equipment and man-power; the converse is also true.”
A previous agreement between the City of Merritt and the District of Logan Lake in the form of a bylaw had lapsed, so council agreed to rescind the bylaw and execute a new Mutual Aid agreement to match similar agreements with the Lower Nicola Indian Band and the City of Kamloops.
Mill fires and other incidents in the past have made it necessary for Merritt to request assistance from these communities to supplement the MFRD firefighting force at the emergency scene or to respond to other emergencies in the community.
“The mutual aid agreement is exactly what the title says – when you’re in need of aid we hope to be there to help you and when we’re in need of aid, we’re hoping you’re going to be there to come to our assistance,” said Merritt CAO Matt Noble.
Noble explained that mutual aid agreements make better use of the equipment in a region and provide security for all communities involved.
The agreement specifies that the responding department would be remunerated for their services at a rate of $200 per hour for apparatus, and $20 per hour per firefighter, including the cost of transporting firefighters and apparatus to the site of the emergency. It also explains in the case of an emergency in the responding department’s own city resources may be withdrawn.
“[The mutual aid agreement] is a benefit to everybody in the region because you get to share the likelihood that you will need equipment and pool resources,” said Noble. “This is us being responsible enough in a region to look at each other and say we can help other because none of us have the numbers we’d like to have.”