THUNDER BAY — A fire ban imposed in Conmee Township since early May is expected to be lifted in a matter of days, now that a new firefighting vehicle is coming into service.
The municipality declared a complete ban on open burning on May 9th, and all existing fire permits were suspended until further notice.
Conmee Fire Chief Robb Day said the township's pumper truck, which is almost 30 years old, experienced a breakdown during a mutual aid call with a neighbouring municipality.
With some repairs, it can still be used as a tanker truck to shuttle water to a fire, but the prohibition against fires was required until another pumper could be acquired.
Robb said a retired unit from the Oshawa fire department fit the bill, and it is in the process of being certified as mechanically sound.
"It's just getting its safety done today, actually," he said in an interview Tuesday. "I'm expecting it to be in service before the end of the week, in which case we will be lifting our fire ban as soon as that truck is in service."
Robb said Conmee has continued to have the support of neighbouring fire services under mutual aid agreements, but said it's not an ideal solution because "mutual aid is pretty overused and overextended" in the rural Thunder Bay area.
"That's another reason we've been reluctant to drop our fire ban. We don't want to put an extra strain on departments that are already struggling with staffing levels and their own high call volumes."
An open house is planned for July to introduce the new pumper and give Conmee residents a chance to learn more about their emergency first responder team.
