ATHABASCA – Athabasca County is back in compliance with provincial regulations after it passed a bylaw allowing its volunteer firefighters to place a flashing green light on their vehicles while they respond to calls.
The lights, which are regulated under the Traffic Safety Act (TSA), don’t allow the volunteers to break existing traffic laws; it isn’t the same thing as a police siren. Instead, the lights allow other drivers to recognize and identify the vehicles during an emergency response.
“Where they really shine is when a firefighter ends up at an incident prior to getting to the hall — myself, I used to live in the county and there would be times I would attend calls before getting to the town,” said Travis Shalapay. Shalapay was a volunteer chief with the Town of Athabasca’s detachment prior to joining the county as its fire services chief in June 2023.
“Four-way lights don’t typically do a lot in terms of slowing down traffic, but that flashing green light is something different. Just that flashing green light, the uncertainty of what it means results in a traffic pacification effect.”
Shalapay said some volunteers had been using the lights since 2013, when the town passed its own bylaw. He noted that may have caused some confusion over what was and wasn’t allowed for county volunteers — the TSA requires a municipality implement a bylaw for the lights to be used — but at the end of the day, Shalapay said it’s a classic case of “no harm, no foul.”
“There was no fault of our volunteers, they weren’t aware that there wasn’t a bylaw in place. You find an error, either on the administration side or volunteer side, you correct it, and you move on,” said Shalapay.
Councillors first discussed the bylaw during the Feb. 29 regular council meeting, where the question of liability — and purchasing the lights — was raised by Coun. Gary Cromwell. Under the bylaw, volunteers are required to purchase the lights for their own vehicle.
Some chiefs, including Tim McEvoy, who runs the Grassland fire hall, bought lights for their volunteers through a non-profit society. While the act doesn’t open the county up to liability, it does present a further question for the fire services department moving forwards; what does it do to make things more equal?
“Some of our districts, like Grassland, they’re societies — the lights weren’t purchased by volunteers, they were purchased by agencies outside the county,” said Shalapay.
Shalapay noted there isn’t a standard for what lights people have on their vehicle; some volunteers have elaborate, expensive setups, while others may just opt for a single flashing light.
“We have to make some decisions on if we cover previous costs, and to what degree. There’s some here that have more lighting than I have in my company truck,” said Shalapay.
