Persistence pays off as Sudbury community reopens local fire station after almost 3-year closure

Sudbury's Skead fire hall officially reopens Sights & Sounds: Angela Gemmill captured the excitement in the Skead community as its fire hall officially reopened on Saturday.

The residents of Skead celebrated two big milestones on Saturday. The small community located on the south shore of Wanapitei Lake in the far northeast corner of Greater Sudbury marked its 100-year anniversary and after three years of persistently advocating to the city, the fire station finally re-opened.

“We have a ‘can do’ attitude and we're just not going to give up. We're going to persist,” said long-time Skead resident Nicole Everest.

Everest was the co-chair of the ‘Save the Skead Fire Station’ committee and said seeing it reopen was emotional.

“I had a hard time keeping my tears in check for when we were talking,” she said.

“However, it's a great day to celebrate, but we can't take our foot off the gas pedal because we're almost there, but we're not quite there yet.”

The fire hall, on MacLennan Drive, closed in January 2022 due to structural damage after a fire truck hit an exterior wall. Then a city staff report recommended it permanently consolidate with the Garson station.

That’s when residents rallied to keep the station, with Everest behind much of that community support, including working with the city councillor Natalie Labbee, who represents Ward 7.

“You have to have a ‘can do’ attitude for something like this to be achieved,” said Labbee.

“We were the underdogs. The community was definitely an underdog.”

One of the conditions of re-opening the fire hall is to meet the standard 14 volunteer firefighters staffing level. There are now 11 volunteers in Skead, with recruitment continuing. According to Everest at one point over the past two years there was just one volunteer firefighter in Skead. The community is also working toward certification for a Captain at its station.

The current firefighters are in the process of being trained to drive and operate the pumper truck which will eventually be re-assigned to Skead. Until then the vehicle operates from the Garson fire station. Skead has a transfer truck that transports groups of firefighters to locations.

While the fire station was closed, fire services were provided by the station in Garson, which meant longer response times. The Garson station is about 15 kilometres from the community of Skead.

“Way too long,” said Everest.

“It was very dangerous not to be protected locally because minutes and seconds are critical.”

Labbee said she was disappointed the community of Beaver Lake couldn’t save its fire hall. The two communities had combined efforts to rally to save both fire stations from consolidation, but in June, city council rejected an attempt to keep Beaver Lake’s station open for another year.

“It's important for us as councillors who are connected to our communities and our wards, to be those advocates, to speak up, listen, talk to people who live in the wards, listen to their concerns,” said Labbee.

There was also a celebration at the Skead Community Centre on Saturday marking the 100th anniversary of the community.