No one really knew when there would be a change in leadership at the Athabasca Fire Department, but the flames of retirement were licking at the door earlier this year and they knew it was close at hand.
This summer, Denis Mathieu was honoured for 30 years of dedication to the fire services, in many different capacities in Alberta.
And Bryan Hall – who works as the regional fire services coordinator for Athabasca County and has been a member of the Athabasca Fire Department for 10 years – knew something was coming soon.
For Hall though, he didn’t know it would be this quick and he also wasn’t anticipating being selected to replace Mathieu.
“It’s not something anyone really expects,” said Hall in an interview just before being taken away on an emergency call.
“It’s such a high honour that the members put their trust in you as the new fire chief.”
Hall added that the gap left by Mathieu stepping away from the job – Mathieu will remain a member of the department – is going to be a huge challenge for him and the rest of the leadership.
“When you have someone step aside with 30-plus years of knowledge, that’s a big gap and some big shoes to fill by what are some relatively young guys,” stated Hall, who is also nearly finished becoming a fully-qualified fire investigator and is also a completely trained firefighter as well as does fire inspections.
“There’s a lot that goes into this job and its going to keep growing as the community grows, as the volume of calls increase and the nature of those calls get bigger.”
The fact that Athabasca’s department, as with the vast majority of fire department in Alberta, is operated by volunteers, makes Hall’s job more difficult as there is the constant need to recruit more individuals and find ones that are available at the times they are needed.
“We live in a world now where people have to work a lot in order to make a living, in order to have the life that they want for themselves, their family and children,” Hall explained.
“That where the work comes and we are fortunate right now that we have had several new recruits come onboard very recently and almost all of them will be available at those difficult to staff times.”
Hall is grateful as well for the excellent core of firefighters and officers the department has that will help to him fill the void left behind.
“They are going to be providing me with a lot of help with the training and other things that need to be done,” he said.
One thing Hall and the rest of the department are looking forward to in the coming year is later this summer when the new rescue/pumper truck arrives.
