Victoria Beach reeve responds to emergency service concerns after firefighters threaten to walk off the job

Sunday hundreds of people gathered at a rally in Victoria Beach to support Patzer. (Source: CTV News)

Firefighters in the Rural Municipality of Victoria Beach have decided to continue working after threatening to walk off the job.

Last week the RM fired its fire chief Brad Patzer citing communication issues.

Acting fire chief Wolf Kraft said Sunday firefighters were so upset a majority had voted to quit the department.

He said if firefighters quit emergency response times would have been impacted.

READ MORE: Victoria Beach firefighters threaten to walk off the job after chief let go

However, Kraft tells CTV News at meeting Monday night firefighters agreed to continue working with the RM.

Kraft said Patzer’s wife attended the meeting and appealed to firefighters to “hang in there” and stay on with the team.

To mitigate issues, Kraft said he’s instituted a fire ban in the RM, which means people are not allowed to have fires in pits, or burn grass or brush. Fire pit permits will also no longer be issued, he said.

Kraft said he instituted the ban because conditions are very dry, and he wants to limit the exposure of firefighters.

Kraft said he hopes to meet with council later this week.

RM RESPONDS TO CONCERNS ABOUT DELIVERY OF SERVICES

The RM of Victoria Beach said Wednesday delivering fire, rescue and EMS services remain an important priority, and has been in contact with the Office of the Fire Commissioner

“If our volunteers decide they do not wish to continue to provide these important services the RM has made arrangements with neighboring municipalities. We have been in contact with the Interlake - Eastman Regional Health Authority, and the provincial E-911 centre,” said reeve Brian Hodgson.

“The RM of Victoria Beach values the dedicated services that our fire and EMS response personnel provide and we sincerely hope that those services will continue to be provided by our long time volunteers.”

Hodgson said with respect to Mr. Patzer’s termination, it is a human resources matter and limited in terms of making comments.

“We can state that Mr. Patzer’s employment was terminated on a for cause basis. It was only as last resort that this decision was made after involving third party mediation and other efforts to try to resolve the matters that lead to his termination,” Hodgson said.