Fire chiefs from across the province will convene in Moose Jaw for the Saskatchewan Association of Fire Chiefs’ 69th annual conference this week.
The City of Moose Jaw Fire Department will host 169 delegates at the conference which runs from Thursday to Saturday at Mosaic Place.
“Shaping the future together is the theme for this year and basically with these conferences, we’re trying to give other departments and other chiefs tools to take back to their communities,” said Cathie Bassett, the Moose Jaw Fire Department’s public education officer. “They can make it their own and implement it in their communities in their terms and their own way. We try to give them tools to take back to their community and shape the future and make it better.”
The size and nature of the fire departments in the province are as diverse as the province itself.
“There are almost 500 fire departments right across our province,” Bassett said. “There’s a lot of volunteer departments. Not all of them come to this because the volunteer departments can’t always afford to attend these things because quite often it comes out of their own pockets to attend.”
While she noted that there is plenty for the bigger city fire chiefs to take away from the conference, there are also valuable resources and opportunities for the heads of the smaller departments.
“It’s a lot of networking too. It’s good for some of these smaller departments to have their chiefs come in and network with other people who may have the same problems in their communities. That’s how they solve things by networking and talking to people who have the same things,” Bassett said.
There will be a trade show offering everything from gear and uniforms, all the way to trucks and equipment that will start at 7 p.m. Thursday evening until 3 p.m. on Friday afternoon.
There will also be speakers and presentations on topics as diverse as distracted driving, mental health and social media.
“I think there will be a little bit for everybody this year and we have some very interesting speakers,” Bassett said.
The conference will conclude Saturday with a presentation by James Burneka Jr., the founder of Firefighter Cancer Consultants, called “Cancer Prevention for Firefighters”
Dave Sanderson, an author and motivational speaker, will provide the keynote address Saturday. Sanderson was on US Airways Flight 1549. The “Miracle on the Hudson” saw the plane land in the Hudson River in New York. The incident was turned into the Tom Hanks film Sully.
