Originally from England and most recently from the District of Central Kootenay, Dave McMahon is the Osoyoos Fire Department’s first full-time fire chief. He celebrated one year on the job on July 8 (File photo)
Dale Boyd
Times-Chronicle
Dave McMahon, the first-ever full time, paid fire chief for the Osoyoos Fire Department (OFD) is proud of what he and the department have accomplished in his first year on the job, but the work of a firefighter is never truly done.
McMahon celebrated his one-year anniversary in Osoyoos July 8, days after the department reached another milestone bringing in Deputy Chief of Fire Prevention Tyler Hilland — giving Osoyoos an on-duty fire chief 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
“It has been a tremendous amount of work certainly that’s why I was employed to have an extremely strong work ethic, but it has been monumental and I’ve got to say that. It’s a massive amount of work to do and a huge amount of progress has been made,” McMahon said.
In the past year McMahon has been diligent in working towards getting the department in line with the town’s 2019 Fire Master Plan and updates to provincial regulations, and a worldwide pandemic obviously comes with its challenges.
There are about 26 paid, on-call firefighters at the department who have worked hard to implement the plans in place, McMahon said.
“They have organized themselves and the membership they have embraced it. We have a bunch of dedicated people that I’m very proud to work alongside. I’m very fond of them, I’m very protective over them,” McMahon said.
However, the department needs around 10 to 15 more members, and recruiting can have its challenges in a rural resort community, and especially so during a pandemic.
“What was a challenge one year ago remains a challenge today: we need more paid on-call members, no two ways about it. This fire department needs around 35 to 40 members to withstand the ebbs and flows of incidents and the ebbs and flows of people’s personal lives,” McMahon said.
“That is a challenge for not only this department but any paid on-call or volunteer fire department that doesn’t have firefighting career staff.”
Fire chief Dave McMahon presents Mila Keller with a certificate stating her appointment as junior fire chief. (Vanessa Broadbent / Osoyoos Times)
A huge step forward was getting a deputy chief, starting this week, McMahon said.
“But it’s still not a firefighting force and that’s where the real work is and COVID-19 has definitely impacted our ability to aggressively attract people that we need to attract.”
A resort municipality and retirement community with low levels of industry can make it tough to attract members to the department who usually have to hold down another job, but not a unique challenge to Osoyoos. In his former role as Regional Deputy Fire Chief of the Regional District of Central Kootenay McMahon managed 18 fire departments and 400 firefighters and many communities would have similar struggles for new members.
“This is a common problem. Retaining people and being able to have the resilience to withstand the peaks and flows of the incidents as they come throughout the calendar year,” McMahon said. “It’s always a challenge, a real challenge, one that we are strategically looking towards.”
Attracting people to be a paid on-call firefighting has become an economic challenge for prospective firefighters as well.
“Back in the day it was a place where you just hung out and it was more social. Now with the Office of the Fire Commissioner, the playbook and the minimum standards we have to comply with, and WorkSafeBC, you know it’s a lot of commitment,” McMahon said. “That balance between somebody having a job that puts food on the table, allows them to have quality time with their family, but still be able to respond to incidents and still be able to do the training and the legislation we have to comply with is definitely a challenge.”
The Osoyoos department is attached to a Vancouver training program and McMahon plans to have the OFD become a farm team of sorts for people who want to get top-level training and education at a smaller department.
“There are fire departments in this province that have become very successful with strong membership being what they call a ‘farm’ where people come want to gain that experience, be part of a department that understands where it’s going and hopefully land a career job at some point,” McMahon said.
“The people we have in the fire department right now I’m so proud of them. They’re making it work, they are making great headway with the program we have in place. And when they come out the other side of this they can stand shoulder to shoulder with any career firefighter and have that same professional level of qualification.”
McMahon admits he hasn’t had much time to get out and enjoy the community outside of work, but with a new deputy chief there may be a glimmer of hope for some family time.
“I do love the town and the community and the wonderful things there is to do here. I will say my recreational time this past year has pretty much been non-existent,” McMahon said with a laugh. “It comes with the territory. I’m hoping now with the three of us being here to share that on-duty chief part I can finally get some quality time with my wife. The fire chief can never turn his phone off, that comes absolutely with the responsibility. But it would be nice to have a few days off to enjoy more of this wonderful place we live in.”
