Left without a local fire crew, new volunteers step up in Mendenhall, Yukon
The rural Yukon community of Mendenhall is hoping to have some new volunteer firefighters in place by summer, after being without a local fire crew since last year. A handful of new recruits will start training next week.
"It's not unheard of to run out of volunteers," said James Paterson, acting fire marshal for the Yukon government.
"As time goes on, they either lose interest or they have other commitments that take them away from the fire hall," he said.
Paterson said there were once 11 volunteer firefighters at the Mendenhall fire department, which serves the Alaska highway community of fewer than 100 people. As of May, there were only two volunteers still active.
"They finally came to the conclusion that they weren't going to be able to sustain it on their own," said Paterson.
He said since then, the Ibex Valley volunteer fire department has been covering Mendenhall. Ibex Valley is about 30 kilometres down the highway.
Six new recruits
Recruitment efforts have been going on in Mendenhall over the last few months, and Paterson said six new volunteers will start training next week. He says that's not enough to make up a whole crew, but it will help serve the community.
"I don't think six can handle all emergencies, but they certainly can mitigate most emergencies," he said. "It'll be a good quick reaction force to start the basics of the process of dealing with the emergencies, while Ibex will come in and support them."
Alexandre Poitras, a farmer in Mendenhall, is among the new recruits. He said while it's good Ibex Valley firefighters are helping his community out, he has concerns about how far away they are.
"It's a bit far. I don't know what their response times would be, but I'm assuming if they have a call I don't think we'll see anyone within an hour," he said.
"A lot can happen with a wildfire in an hour — it can spread quite far."
Poitras said he is often on his land, so he hopes to be able to keep an eye on the area and help once he's trained.
