The chiefs of the County’s four fire departments are working on a proposal they hope to present to their respective councils this year advocating for improved collaboration between local stations.
Dan Chumbley, who heads up the Dysart department, told The Highlander he tries to assist on calls in Algonquin Highlands, Minden Hills, and Highlands East when needed, via a loose mutual aid agreement – but he feels there’s an opportunity for more enhanced partnerships.
The proposal is for an immediate two-department response for certain calls, such as structure fires, wildland fires, and specialized rescues. He said the idea is the two closest units to an incident would respond. A sixmonth pilot was carried out last year.
“The intent is to get more firefighters for larger-scale incidents responding sooner, by drawing from a bigger pool,” Chumbley said. “The increased number of call outs make it harder for the current firefighters to attend everything.”
The Dysart station responded to 444 emergency calls in 2024, up around five per cent from 2023 and 15 per cent from 2022.
The department is staffed almost exclusively by volunteers, who often rush from their day jobs, or from home, to respond when calls come in. Chumbley said he has a full quota of 28 members, having added three last year to replace retirees. All volunteers are paid an hourly rate.
“Some can reorganize their workload and respond after a short delay, but it is still a delay,” Chumbley said. “Call outs can happen at any time and for a large variety of reasons. We sometimes go days without hearing our pagers, and then we will have a short burst of activity all at once.”
That was the case the weekend of Jan. 18 and 19, with Dysart firefighters logging over 130 hours responding to seven calls. The situation is a little more desperate in Algonquin Highlands, according to its chief Mike French. Addressing council at a Jan. 16 meeting, he said the department was having issues responding effectively to calls through Station 80 in Stanhope due to a lack of volunteers.
“We seem to have an open door going through – we lose one, we gain one. Every time we seem like we’re making some progress, another person leaves,” French said. “I don’t know the reasoning behind it.
“Station 60 (Dorset) and Station 70 (Oxtongue Lake) get good responses to all calls. We are low for Station 80. We don’t have the numbers we anticipate we should have.”
French noted medical-related response times are good, with those requiring four-to-five volunteers. Fires are a different animal, though, usually requiring at least double that amount.
As such, any time a call comes through Station 80, French said Dorset-based volunteers will also respond. He noted there’s also an agreement with Minden Hills for added assistance. French said that’s reciprocated any time there’s an emergency in Minden.
There was a 4.7 per cent increase in call volume in Algonquin Highlands in 2024, up to 334 from 316 the previous year. Of those, 45 were fire-related responses.
Minden, HE ‘steady’
Don Kruger, chief of the Minden department, said it has been a steady couple of years – reporting the exact same number of callouts in 2023 and 2024, with 376 emergencies. He estimated about 50 per cent were medical.
There is one volunteer vacancy, with 24 of 25 roster spots filled. Being the closest department to the City of Kawartha Lakes, Kruger said he also has a mutual aid agreement there.
It’s been a busy start to the new year – Kruger said over the past five years the department has averaged 16 calls in January. As of Jan. 20, they were already at 23.
In Highlands East, chief Chris Baughman said there are around 300 calls annually. He estimates 55 to 60 per cent are medical related.
His department has an active roster of 45 volunteers but can carry up to 50. “We are always interested in adding a befitting new candidate,” Baughman said.
He believes there would be a benefit to instituting a permanent two-department response in the County.
“It’ll be up to councils to decide,” he said.
