General News

Rosemont firefighters gear up for wildfire season

June 19, 2025   ·   0 Comments

By JAMES MATTHEWS

Just west of Alliston, the Rosemont District Fire Department has grown in a couple of ways.

Fire Chief Mike Blacklaws told Mono Town Council when it met on June 10 that two new firefighters joined the ranks and have completed training since January 2024. The department also put a new pumper truck on the road at that time.

The department services some communities in Dufferin and Simcoe counties.

A Community Emergency Preparedness Grant was put toward readying the department to tackle any wildfire, should they occur.

“We see that as a current (challenge) and (one that) can only get worse (with the) type of exposure that we’re going to have in this area,” Blacklaws said.

The biggest purchase to increase wildfire readiness was a drone that will be used for high-level observations of fire scenes, he said.

“It’s also equipped with thermal imaging so it can be used for search and rescue at night or at any time, really,” Blacklaws said. “With zoom lenses and everything, we can sort of pick up objects at a distance.”

To that end, there are three firefighters who have been trained to pilot the drone. The chief said others will be trained as well.

“This drone is of a size that you have to be certified to an advanced level to fly it,” Blacklaws said.

Public education continues to be a major initiative, he said. A component of that is the distribution of an annual fire safety calendar.

“That’s our primary focus, getting the fire safety message out to the community,” he said. “We also hold open houses throughout the year and that’s another way of reaching out.”

Nineteen per cent of their calls in 2024 were for motor vehicle accidents, 43 per cent were medical responses, 26 per cent of the calls were actual fires, and 13 per cent were categorized as other.

These could include but are not limited to carbon monoxide investigations, burn complaints, public hazards like downed power lines, hazardous material incidents, search and rescue, and mutual aid calls where we are requested to provide stand-by coverage in a neighbouring fire department’s coverage area but not respond to the emergency scene itself, according to a report to council.

“This category also includes assisting other agencies as required such as police should the incident not be covered in one of the above categories,” the report said.

Mono Deputy Mayor Fred Nix said firefighting governance is top of mind in Dufferin County. Adjala-Tosorontio Township considered breaking from the Rosemont fire board. The Rosemont department would still be serving those homes near the town line, even if the township broke away.

“Would you be doing it on the basis of mutual aid, in which case there would be no revenue for that service?” Nix said. “Or would you be charging Adjala-Tos for the calls?”

If Adjala-Tosorontio took over that part of the geography, Rosemont would only be called for mutual aid, Blacklaws said.

“And there is no fee for mutual aid,” he said.

“So they can leave the fire board and still get your trucks to come for mutual aid, but they wouldn’t pay a cent,” Nix said. “That concerns me.”

“Yes,” Blacklaws said.

“I know it’s died down now, but it does concern me,” Nix said.

Mike Dunmore, the town’s CAO, said the 911 emergency call service would identify the township by address in the event of a call and reach out to the appropriate department.

Councillor Ralph Manktelow said he believes the frequency of wildfire incidents will increase in the future. He said he’s encouraged the fire department is concerned about that.

“Because a wildfire in a forest is a different matter,” he said.

“I’ve been trying to raise the alarm now for years about fire protection in the provincial lands within the Town of Mono,” Mayor John Creelman said. “In particular, what is the fire plan for, say, Mono Cliffs Park or the Hockley Reserve.”

Whenever he put such questions to provincial officials, Creelman said the response would be to put it in the hands of local fire departments.

“Parts of Mono Cliffs would be completely inaccessible to virtually everything but a water bomber,” he said.

Blacklaws said teams from the Ministry of Natural Resources are available to local fire departments.

“It’s just a matter of time for them getting here,” he said and acknowledged that municipal fire departments would be the initial responders.

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