Victoria Beach firefighters threaten action after chief fired

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This article was published 20/04/2018 (2195 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Victoria Beach firefighters are threatening to walk away from their posts and leave the community without a fire department after their chief was fired last week.

On Tuesday, the RM’s council voted in favour of firing Brad Patzer, who holds three different positions within the municipality. He has more than 40 years of experience with the fire department, Deputy Fire Chief Wolf Kraft said.

“We’ve worked with the chief for many years and we’ve been forced into a situation where we have to decide who we’re going to follow. And we’re going to follow the chief,” Kraft said.

Kraft, who has been filling in as acting fire chief since Patzer’s dismissal, doesn’t agree with the RM’s decision.

On Friday, RM of Victoria Beach Reeve Brian Hodgson released a statement, saying the decision to fire Patzer was motivated by his lack of communication.

“For several months (Patzer) refused to communicate with the RM in the manner expected of an employee tasked with multiple and significant responsibilities. This ongoing refusal to communicate and co-operate with the RM was not acceptable,” the statement said.

However, Wolf said the firing stems from Patzer’s role as the municipality’s health and safety officer, not his work in the fire department.

Even council admits there have not been any concerns with his work as fire chief, Wolf said, adding what led to Patzer’s dismissal was a personality clash with another RM employee.

“Our viewpoint is that this should not impact his role as fire chief. Our feeling is there have been no issues with his performance and leadership within the fire department, something council would back us up on,” Kraft said.

“It’s becoming increasingly difficult to staff rural fire departments and replacing someone with his level of experience would be incredibly difficult.”

After news of the fire chief’s dismissal came down the pipe, the department held an emergency meeting Thursday where the majority of firefighters voted in favour of standing in solidarity with Patzer. They plan to resign or take a leave of absence if he’s not reinstated, leaving the community without an operating fire department.

Kraft talked the firefighters into holding off until Monday night, allowing the RM time to revisit their decision. However, he said should that not happen, the firefighters will do as they promised.

“We want to assure our residents that contingency plans are in place to provide for continued emergency response services. All emergency calls will be directed to the appropriate agencies,” the RM’s release said Friday.

Kraft said he’s doing his best to convince council to sit back down with the fire department leadership to work something out, but so far hasn’t had much luck. If the firefighters walk off the job, other rural departments will have to step up to deliver service, but response times would suffer, he said.

“I’m just working to keep the lines of communication open and bring this whole situation towards a positive resolution. I’m going to stay optimistic right up until Monday night that something can be worked out,” Kraft said.

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca@rk_thorpe