Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Eli McKenty had been Cortes Island’s Interim Fire Chief for 15 days when I interviewed him. He was actually the Department’s preferred choice as Fire Chief five months ago, but turned the job down, so they hired someone from Alberta. After five months of a six month trial period, the Cortes Island Fire Department came to the conclusion that ‘aspects of Dave Ives’ leadership style were at odds with the culture of our fire department’ and he was dismissed. McKenty agreed to be the Fire Chief until they can find a replacement.

“I've been a member of the Cortes Fire Department for a little over eight years. I've really enjoyed my time on the Fire Department, I think that it's great to be able to serve the community,” he explained.

“ Fire Departments in British Columbia can operate at one of three levels. There are Exterior Firefighting Departments, Interior Firefighting Departments, and Full Service Departments. Most departments in small rural communities are Exterior Operations Fire Departments, which has always been the case for Cortes.”

“Under our Contract with the Strathcona Regional District (SRD), we are not required to train for or go into burning buildings. Our Department is not supposed to be required to go into a burning building. We can go into a building where there's been a kitchen fire, a chimney fire, or we can go in and check for extensions into attic spaces, and so on.”

“That is our contracted service level, but it doesn't say that if we are properly trained and equipped we can't enter burning buildings. To the extent that we have the volunteers who are committed to the training and we have the proper equipment, we can choose to provide interior services on a case by case basis.”

“We have a goal of training members who are able to commit the time and effort to the point where in the future we would have enough trained members to conduct interior operations if we had to. But it's a fairly advanced level compared to exterior operations and is not a service that this department has previously offered that I'm aware of.”