Fire chief responds to Councillor Myers

The following is a response by Fire Chief Marcel Provenzano to Ward 2 Councillor Susan Myers, addressing her accusation that he had hijacked City Council by recently announcing a temporary fire ban.

Additional coverage of the fire ban issue will appear later this morning or this afternoon on SooToday.com, including findings of an internal review of SooToday.com's coverage of this issue after the accuracy of our reporting was questioned by Councillor Myers.

************************* From: Fire Services Chief Marcel Provenzano

Date: Friday March 25, 2011

I am not about to speculate on a time frame for this ban.

Doing so would only raise unnecessary questions and concerns from the public should conditions worsen.

The timing of this ban will also allow us to make the policy and procedural changes which will benefit the community at large.

Please understand that burning at this time of year has adverse effects.

Combustible products are wet and create much higher than normal smoke conditions, and grass is quickly becoming tinder dry, which contributes to substantial increases in burning complaints.

Incremental proactive measures will mitigate these occurrences.

I can assure you Sault Ste. Marie Fire Services did not intend to "take advantage" or "hijack" council.

Simply put, it is not unusual for Sault Ste. Marie Fire Services to review its policies or put temporary burn bans into effect.

What also transpired over the past week is that the fire prevention division reviewed the burn permit policies based on the direction that council gave us to try and reduce complaints.

I then called a meeting to discuss this issue.

As a result of that meeting a decision was made to temporarily put a ban in effect.

Sault Ste. Marie Fire Services will not issue any new permits or renewals at this time until our burn permits have been revised to reflect the more restrictive changes that we felt would satisfy the request to reduce the complaints received by council.

It is absolutely imperative that Fire Service treats all residents and permit holders equally during this transitional period, and it will take time and effort on our part to educate the public and ensure compliance with policy changes by both old and new permit holders.

These initiatives come as a result of council’s resolution which triggered a report and council approved recommendations.

Once this short-lived transitional period has been accepted by the public, which as you well know may take a bit of time to fully understand and accept, I believe the end result will be positive.

Marcel Provenzano Fire Chief, Sault Ste Marie Fire Services

************************* Full SooToday.com coverage of this story

City cracks down on urban bonfires March 24 announcement of fire ban Susan Myers accuses fire chief of hijacking City Council Fire chief responds to Councillor Myers