Meaford to fight fire-related charges
Posted by John Malloy on 07/09/2010
By Scott Dunn -
Meaford intends to fight six health and safety charges laid in connection with practices and equipment of the Meaford and District Fire Department.
“We believe we can defend those charges quite well,” chief administrative officer Frank Miele said in an interview Thursday.
“So we are going to be defending those charges very, very strongly.”
The charges stem from last September’s Reeds Restaurant fire in which two firefighters were injured. Initial reports mistakenly said one died, after vital signs were initially reported absent.
A Ministry of Labour investigation led to the charges, under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
Asked if any operational changes were made as a result of the fire, Miele began by saying the firefighters were trained “pretty well” and their equipment was functioning “well.”
“Unfortunately during the fire, things happen so quickly,” he said.
He said the Ontario Office of the Fire Marshal ordered the fire department to conduct some training for the firefighters after the fire. That was done, at a cost of about $15,000.
“So we did have additional training, if you will. But we did not need that additional training because our logs state very clearly that we did have training, the same training that they took.
“So from our perspective, we did everything correctly. Accidents will happen in all traumatic issues like that. And that’s what actually took place.”
Fire and emergency workers arriving at the burning building before 6 a.m. Sept. 9 heard that both apartment tenants were still upstairs, which turned out to be false.
Then-deputy fire chief Dan Shaw said at the time that two “highly trained” firefighters went up to the apartment to look for the occupants while another team tackled the blaze, which had started at the rear of the restaurant.
The two firefighters soon sent a radio distress call and said they were short of oxygen. Firefighters trained as a rapid intervention team immediately went in after them. They pulled one firefighter from the apartment, the other was helped from the building, Shaw said at the time.
The building remains boarded up today.
A fire marshal’s office spokesman said Thursday he couldn’t comment on the cause of the fire or release any other information because charges are before the court.
Meaford Fire Chief Steve Nickels said Thursday the fire marshal concluded the cause of the fire was “undetermined.” He said he could not elaborate on details of the incident, based on legal advice…
www.owensoundsuntimes.com
Posted by
John Malloy
on 07/09/2010. Filed under
Meaford.
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