Beaver Lake-area residents can rely on firefighters from the Township of Nairn and Hyman Fire Department as backup for emergency services along the western edge of Greater Sudbury.
That is, unless township firefighters are busy tending to incidents in their own community.
An aid agreement with the township was agreed to in August, which Greater Sudbury Fire Services Deputy Chief Jesse Oshell said finalizes an arrangement already in place.
“It formalizes and brings up to date our historic aid agreement we’ve had with Nairn Centre that was not particularly formal or well-documented in the past,” he said.
“It’s an aid agreement that allows Greater Sudbury to contact Nairn Centre fire services and request their assistance in a predetermined geographic area.”
This geographic area is from the western edge of Greater Sudbury to Worthington Road, located just west of the shuttered Beaver Lake emergency services station.
The agreement also allows the Nairn and Hyman Fire Department to respond to incidents within Greater Sudbury in the event they receive the call first. This can happen when incidents are called in to 911 near the border or from people driving westbound, Oshell explained, noting that responses are fastest when the department initially contacted heads out immediately.
A motion of city council last year dictated that staff were to negotiate an automatic aid agreement with the township, which Oshell clarified did take place.
“Automatic aid means you are coming no matter what, you are being relied upon to provide fire protection per the agreement,” he explained, adding that the township would not commit to such an arrangement.
Nairn and Hyman Fire Department Chief Richard Austin told Sudbury.com that although an automatic aid agreement was discussed, they wouldn’t have the capacity to take it on.
“Our municipality is small, so our main concern is having to protect my area,” Austin said, noting that his department has between 10 to 13 volunteer members.
An automatic aid agreement was in place in the ’90s, but Austin said that things have changed since that time, and they don’t have the resources to guarantee protection to the Beaver Lake area.
“At the most we have five to six (firefighters) responding (per call),” he said, adding that they struggle with volunteer firefighter recruitment, which is commonplace among fire departments.
The aid agreement with Greater Sudbury they ended up settling on “seems to sit well,” he said.
“Nairn Centre can respond as we have requested and as they are available,” Oshell said of the agreement. “The aid agreement simply states that Nairn Centre can decide at the time of request if they are able to respond and assist us, or not.”
Per the agreement, the Nairn and Hyman Fire Department is compensated whenever they attend to a call in Greater Sudbury.
“This is on the Nairn Centre taxpayer, so we have to make sure we’re compensating them,” Oshell said.
Fire protection in the Beaver Lake area will remain the same, albeit with greater communication with the Nairn and Hyman Fire Department, plus assurances they will attend if available.
“What it will look like today is what it looked like yesterday and tomorrow,” he said, noting that area fire departments, including those in Lively, Waters and Whitefish, will be dispatched. In the event of a house fire, a career vehicle from Sudbury is dispatched automatically alongside a platoon chief.
In the event local firefighters determine they need Nairn and Hyman Fire Department assistance, they’ll be called out.
The city has a similar aid agreement with the Markstay-Warren Fire Department at the eastern side of the city, Oshell said.
The aid agreement doesn’t affect area residents’ property insurance rates, Oshell said, noting that it remains rated at the lowest level of protection, as it has been for years.
An aid agreement with the Nairn and Hyman Fire Department was requested by city council in June 2023, at which time they voted to keep the station open for another year. In the event volunteer numbers didn’t pick up to where they needed them to be within that one-year period, it would close, consolidate with the Whitefish station, and an aid agreement with the township would be sought.
One year later, membership had grown to seven, including two new recruit applicants, which fell short of the 11-member minimum requirement. As such, the city proceeded with the Beaver Lake station’s closure.
A group of community advocates called The Beaver Lake Fire & Services Committee is working on a letter to Greater Sudbury city council in which they’re proposing an alternative plan to the city’s $164.6-million emergency services revitalization plan, member Brenda Salo told Sudbury.com.
The city’s plan currently calls for a $7.5-million renovation to the Whitefish station, which absorbed the Beaver Lake station earlier this year.
Instead, the committee is advocating for the construction of a new emergency services station situated between the existing Whitefish station and the shuttered Beaver Lake station so it’s closer to their community.