By: Fred Groves, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Tilbury Times Reporter
Response times to emergencies are expected to be quicker in Lakeshore following the recent announcement that the municipality is hiring two new full-time firefighters.
In April town council approved the positions and according to Fire Chief Jason Suchiu it will take a lot of pressure off volunteer firefighters.
“We have extreme dedication from our staff and they are always there when we need them. The reality is, they can’t be there all the time,” said Chief Suchiu.
Lakeshore has five stations including the main hall in Lakeshore, along with stations in Maidstone, Comber, Emeryville, and Ruscom.
A recent report from the chief to council indicates that the high call volume comes during the day between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. when most volunteers are limited to responding due to work and family commitments.
“We have done some assessments and found almost half of the calls we respond to over the year are between 8 and 5,” said Chief Suchiu.
Hiring two full-time firefighters, who will be stationed at Number 3 in Belle River, will free up the chief and his officers to ensure their managerial responsibilities are covered without the concern of not being able to respond to an emergency.
“During the day we will have the staffing we need not only to manage the emergencies we have but it takes some pressure off our volunteers who are available during the day.”
The report to council back in April clearly indicates that volunteer firefighter retention is a major concern and the chief hopes that hiring two full-time will ease that.
In 2022 Lakeshore recruited and trained 43 firefighters of which 32 remain. It was also noted that over the past several years, the turnover rate of new hires has been 25 percent and that it costs an estimated $22,260 to train and equip and new firefighter.
According to Chief Suchiu, the 2024 Fire Master Plan shone a light to the fact that the fire department has to work towards a succession plan as far as staffing and that is why it was agreed to go to a composite style of responders in a mix of full -time and volunteer.
“We’ve been having good communication and brought infrastructure reports to council over the last year-and-a-half that supported the direction that we are going towards.”
The Lakeshore Fire and Rescue Services responded to 729 calls in 2023, 969 in 2024 and last year jumped to 1,143.
Since 2022 it has spent $957,220 on training and equipping firefighters. This year they are on-boarding 12 new volunteers which will bring the compliment to 93.
Chief Suchiu said that the two new full-time firefighters will come from the ranks of the current volunteers.