Fire Chief Ryan McCaskill spoke to Osoyoos Rotarians about his changing department, training firefighters get, and type of situation his team gets called to. He made the commitment to speak before he had any idea he’d be handling a flood. When he was finished speaking, he was back to handle an urgent situation — the Rotarians stayed to eat lunch. (Richard McGuire photo)

Before Ryan McCaskill became Osoyoos Fire Chief last November, he was the one sent first into burning buildings when the situation called for an interior attack.

“Now I watch from the outside and I get really hesitant to send someone in,” he says. “I really worry for them. I know they’re qualified, but I’ve always been the guy to do it… It’s a different feeling for me, just watching.”

For the 17-year veteran of the Osoyoos Fire Department, stepping into the job of fire chief has been an adjustment.

“I am very physical and now I’m stuck with the administrative,” McCaskill told the Rotary Club of Osoyoos in a presentation to their lunch meeting last Thursday. “But you know what, I’m learning and I’m actually enjoying it.”

The lunch came at a bad time. McCaskill, who was incident commander dealing with the floods, was in the midst of a difficult situation involving one of the resort hotels.

“We are really busy,” he told the Rotarians. “I was this close to canceling, but I don’t do that.”

After speaking for about 15 minutes and then staying another 20 minutes to answer questions, he headed back to work without lunch.

While he may not be a natural fit for chief – he’s not a politician – he has a vision for his department to become a well-trained, up-to-date, professionalized firefighting force.

McCaskill became chief last year when firefighters elected him over long-serving chief Rick Jones. It’s a process, he said, that the town wasn’t happy with and has now abolished.

The job of chief is now an appointed position reporting to Town of Osoyoos Chief Administrative Officer Barry Romanko.

McCaskill doesn’t mention his predecessor, except when he praises the wealth of knowledge among some of the department’s veterans with decades of experience.

But it’s clear that McCaskill is very aware of changing times and the need to change with them. He’s very big on training and more training.

“The times are changing and you’ve got to adapt to it,” he said. “You get stuck in the old way of thinking and if you don’t change it, before you know it, we’re outdated and we’re missing out on the new techniques of firefighting.”

That training has included sending firefighters to Penticton to train in burning buildings. They train in auto extrication. They’ve done fire officer training. Recently there was a course on ice rescue.

McCaskill noted that the department is looking at doing some water rescue training and he quipped that handling the recent flooding wasn’t what he had in mind.

The fire department has been busy dealing with evacuations from flooded areas, delivering evacuation alerts and orders.

One challenge facing the department is demographics. Currently there are about 25 members, but not all are active. Some, he said, are involved with fundraising and other activities, but are no longer physically able to handle some of the more demanding tasks of firefighting.

The department includes a number of veterans, including Garth Kunz, who has been a firefighter for 50 years, and others with 20 to 40 or more years of experience.

“The problem is all these guys are getting to the point where they’re going to leave. They’re talking retirement,” said McCaskill. “That’s experience we need. It’s kind of scary, because we don’t have a lot of guys with the knowledge base. We’ve got new guys that are physically active, able to do the job, but they don’t have the experience.”

You need veteran firefighters like Jimmy Liebel and Bill Roque to guide the newer members, McCaskill said.

“Hopefully they leave one by one, because if they leave as a group, it’s going to be a huge hit to the department,” he added.

So the department is looking to bring its numbers up and is encouraging interested people to pick up an application at the town hall.

“We’re looking for everybody,” he said. “We’re definitely happy to bring more members in.”

McCaskill was asked if this included bringing in more women, in addition to Eileen Varga, the lone female in the department.

“It’s all about being able to do the job,” said McCaskill. “There’s no reason a woman can’t do the job.”

He acknowledged that some of the men in the department are no longer able to do some of the more physically demanding tasks, such as carrying 100 pounds of gear.

“I’m not going to ask someone that isn’t able to physically do it to attempt it,” he said. “I’m not going to be responsible for potentially hurting one of my members.”

The final question put McCaskill in the hot seat, testing the non-politician’s ability to give a political answer.

“I heard from friends and neighbours that the building used for the fire department has been too costly for the town,” said the questioner, a newer Rotarian apparently unaware of the controversy that led to a referendum in 2014.

“What is your answer?” she asked.

“Don’t go there!” several Rotarians called out to him.

Realizing this was a hot one, McCaskill tried to choose his words carefully.

“I’ll be honest,” he said. “From the start, we didn’t have a lot of say in that building. Three people took care of it and they did a great job on construction.”

The price came up, he said, because the town wanted the building to look cosmetically pleasing, but they spent money on things the firefighters didn’t ask for.

“You know what the firefighters wanted?” he said. “We wanted a place big enough to put our trucks and have a training ground. That’s what the firefighters wanted. We didn’t ask for the Taj Mahal.”

RICHARD McGUIRE

Osoyoos Times