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Carlow Mayo CFSO fire and emergency management report to council

January 18, 2022

BY MICHAEL RILEY
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

At their meeting on Jan. 11, Carlow Mayo Township council heard from
Dwayne Meharrie, their community fire and safety officer and community emergency management coordinator, who gave them his fire and emergency management report. After Mayor Bonnie Adams asked if there were any questions or concerns, and there were none, council voted to accept Meharrie’s report.
Meharrie gave council his fire and emergency management report for the
township for December. He said that there had been three responses called for during that month. On Dec. 9 there was an alarm system equipment malfunction in New Carlow, on Dec. 11 and Dec. 12, they responded to power lines down along Mayo Lake Road.“As for the downed power line responses on Dec. 11 and Dec. 12, the wind storm that weekend had caused some trees to collapse onto the power lines, snapping the lines causing them to land on the road and causing the tree to catch fire. In the interest of public safety, the township responded with the OPP until Ontario Hydro arrived on the scene to take care of the issues,” he says.
Meharrie informed council that work continues on to implement the recommendations from the Ontario Fire Marshall Fire Protection Services Review. He said that a review of all fire protection services agreements is being completed to ensure that all agreements pertaining to fire protection services reflect current best practices, are authorized by bylaw and are being carried out according to their terms and conditions.He also told them that a fire prevention program based on the Ministry Fire
Smart program is being developed as per their agreement with the Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry.
The Fire Smart program comes from Fire Smart Canada, whose mandate is to reduce the risk that wildfires pose to populated areas. They have done this since the early 1990s by having cooperation between a number of agencies to promote education and awareness, and they have over 100 member organizations across the country. They also have representatives from 10 provinces and territories and international partners like the National Fire Protection Association and the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety. Meharrie revealed to council that a winter fire prevention and public education newsletter and information sheet is being prepared to be sent out to residents in the next round of tax billing.
“Work continues on the newsletter to be placed in the next round of tax bills. Under the Fire Protection and Prevention Act, municipalities must provide fire prevention materials to its residents and this is one avenue we have to achieve this. The newsletter will contain fire safety messages and information based on fire related trends at the time it is issued,” he says.
No new fire code enforcement files were opened in the month of December, according to Meharrie, however he did say that the department is continuing to monitor compliance on one file from 2020.Meharrie told council that the province of Ontario was back in a modified Stage Two in the framework of Ontario’s Roadmap to Reopen. He said that this means lowered capacity limits and new restrictions being put in place. He said that work has started on creating and planning their municipal tabletop exercise for 2022. He says that under the Emergency
Management and Civil Protection Act, municipalities are required to complete an emergency management exercise every year to be compliant.
“Work continues on this year’s exercise where I have decided to conduct the exercise on a downed military aircraft.
I decided to choose this scenario as we see a number of military aircraft fly though the area frequently. I plan on holding the exercise in early fall where I hope to have representatives from the OPP and the Department of National Defence participate in the municipal exercise with our municipal emergency control group,” he says. “However, their participation has not been confirmed.”