WEYBURN, Sask. — About 250 volunteer firefighters from across the province gathered in Weyburn from Oct. 23-25 for the Saskatchewan Volunteer Fire Fighters Association (SVFFA) Fire School and annual general meeting.
The three-day event, hosted in partnership with the Weyburn Fire Department, brought together firefighters, more than 35 instructors and the association’s board of directors for hands-on training and networking.
Aaron Buckingham, president of the SVFFA and fire chief in Melville, said organizing an event of that scale is a major logistical undertaking that was made seamless by local support.
"It's gone off without a hitch," said Buckingham. "It's been absolutely wonderful. Everybody in the city has been welcoming from the restaurants to the hotels. It's just been a great weekend for us."
Buckingham credited the Weyburn Fire Department for ensuring visiting crews had everything they needed, including equipment, training facilities, grounds, hotel rooms and catering.
Over the course of the weekend, participants took part in 16 courses ranging from firefighter basics for newer recruits to advanced live-fire training, with search and rescue, ground ladders, ropes and knots and self-contained breathing apparatus.
The curriculum also featured a specialized livestock rescue course aimed at preparing rural departments for highway rollovers and collisions involving livestock.
"Think about the cattle liners and the things that run around the province all day long," said Buckingham. "When those things happen, we don't just have to deal with the driver of the truck. We have to deal with the livestock as well."
High winds swept through the Weyburn area during outdoor exercises on Saturday, Oct. 24, but Buckingham said the blustery weather provided valuable real-world experience for the crews.
"That's exactly what we should be training in, to be honest," he said. "We're out in the worst situations most of the time. So having the adverse weather conditions yesterday, although not ideal for training, is actually kind of ideal for training when you're doing those things and working through those challenges."
Firefighters travelled from every corner of Saskatchewan to attend the school in the southeast, including crews from the Lloydminster region and La Ronge. Some participants drove more than six hours to take part.
"The drive time to get here for some people over six hours speaks to the dedication and the willingness for people to want to learn, to take this information back to their communities and serve their communities better," said Buckingham.
More than 50 participants enrolled in the introductory firefighter basics class during the weekend, a milestone Buckingham described as an encouraging sign as communities across Saskatchewan grapple with volunteer recruitment and retention challenges.
"It's a large ask of someone to be a volunteer firefighter, to meet the standards, to do the training, take time away from their families, events," said Buckingham. "I've been called away from Christmas and kids' birthdays like all the firefighters do. So, to have 50 newer firefighters come for their first fire school is really a mark of how well things are going."
Beyond the technical instruction, Buckingham said the opportunity for firefighters from different departments to train side by side, share local techniques and connect during the weekend banquet and annual general meeting is just as valuable.
"The fact that all of these students come together from different departments, from every corner of the province, and they learn and they train together, and maybe something they're doing at home that some other department isn't doing, they learn from that," he said. "Outside of the training, the camaraderie and the visiting is just as important, I think."
