WESTLOCK — Every Thursday night, Town of Westlock firefighters meet up at the fire hall for a training session. They’re set ahead of time, a year in advance actually, reviewed quarterly, and they know what they’ll be practicing.
Lately, it’s been all about mutual aid with Westlock County so Busby and Pickardville firefighters joined them Oct. 15 for urban structure fire practice: everything from hooking up to a fire hydrant, fire direction, and where to park the truck for the hookup and the fire hose links they make between trucks for water supply.
They had two new recruits that night too, they stayed at the fire hall for orientation with Lt. Brad Watson. I asked if they look for anything specific, he said: “be willing to learn.” It’s a continuous upward curve, he said, there’s always more to know, so you can’t slack off.
Town chief Stuart Koflick agrees. He says he doesn’t lie to prospects either. The job is tough, it takes a toll on family life because of how much time they spend training and responding at any time of day or night.
There’s a hierarchy, both Kolfick and Watson said the same thing: family first, job second, firefighting third. I’ll venture to say that’s because you can’t be a good firefighter without the other two.
One clue to how they think about what they do: all of them call it a job. They’re volunteers only because they don’t get paid a salary — they get a stipend on a point system. It’s not a hobby, it’s not for fun either. Last year, John Biro, Koflick’s counterpart at the county, received a medal for his years on the force and his work on PTSD recognition for volunteer firefighters. He told me then something I should’ve already known: they respond to the same stuff as the guys who get paid in the city; Kolfick said that too on Thursday. Most recently, there was that fatal car crash near Nestow over the summer.
But the adrenaline rush is good. Newly minted Captain Brian Hegedus — the same guy who climbs the ladder every December for the annual Firefighter in the Sky fundraiser — did joke about heart attacks though. Regardless of the nature of that call, it’s the same reaction. When that beeper goes, he said, you can feel your heart pumping.
Koflick and I chatted about a lot of things while his firefighters trained — he’d keep an eye on them throughout still. The Wabamun native started firefighting at 15 years old as a junior. He spent five years in the military “on tanks and stuff like that,” then on various jobs before he landed here. Most of the guys he knows from the Wabamun department have made something of themselves in firefighting. A couple of them are chiefs too.
It’s good news for his two youngest firefighters, Reid Schmidt and Isaiah Ehrenholz, both 17 years old. Nate Day is new too, but since he’s older, he’s a fully-fledged firefighter. Isaiah’s dad, Trevor Ehrenholz, is a lieutenant on the department, but Isaiah is on Hegedus’ platoon — on purpose. For Hegedus, that kind of mentorship matters and it’s not only practical in nature. You learn from your predecessors and you modify it. Koflick had a lot of praise for Hegedus, he talked about his willingness to learn. Like Watson said, it comes foremost in this job.
There’s a lot of joking. Koflick calls it a family, and they did seem to behave like one. You have to take some banter, Hegedus explained, but he didn’t call it that. I think it’s also part of the training: you have to treat those people as your closest allies, trust is No. 1.
Half-jokingly, and like a complete novice, I asked if they actually save cats from trees. They laughed, I think to be polite, but they did save kittens! Robin Brett said he answered a call about a cat stuck in a sewer: “I opened the lid and the cat did the rest.”
Another thing both Koflick and Watson said separately: “I have no plans to leave, I like it here.” I didn’t ask if they did, but I did ask a lot about why anyone volunteers for the job. Hegedus says it’s about helping the community, and few other answers make sense apart from the adrenaline rush.
In a press release the next day, the town announced it’s starting a recruitment campaign Oct. 19 to add more members to the 13-person department.
“This is an incredibly rewarding endeavour, so we invite individuals who want to help and give back to the community, those people who embody courage, dedication and thrive on challenges to apply,” Koflick wrote.
