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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - This month is Albert Headrick's first anniversary as fire chief of the Yellowknife fire department, and he's glad to be directing a force that, by all counts, has recovered from lingering effects of an incident whose anniversary is also marked this month - the deaths of two firefighters on the job four years ago.

Yellowknife fire chief Albert Headrick, right, sits with newly-promoted officer Craig MacLean, who began his new post as the deputy chief of safety and training on March 16. - Peter Varga/NNSL photo

"We had some internal issues that stemmed from previous years," said Headrick, recalling the challenges he faced when he took on the job last year.

Internal issues between the staff, management and unions "were allowed to fester," he said, and the setting was ripe for change.

"We worked together to overcome our differences of opinion for the betterment of the organization."

The 56-year-old former Ontarian came up from Swift Current, Sask., where he had served as deputy fire chief, to contribute his three decades of expertise with fire services across the country. Starting his career in western Ontario, he worked his way up to fire chief for the Northern Ontario mining town of Manitouwadge.

Headrick served at the NWT fire marshal's office in Iqaluit in the 1980s, then Toronto's big-city department before heading out west to serve Swift Current.

"The philosophy I follow is the past is the past and we must go forward into the future," Headrick told Yellowknifer last week. "And to achieve that, communication is the key to success - understanding and compromising.

"There was a completely different culture altogether (in the department) when I got here a year ago. It has completely turned around."

Last year, Headrick witnessed exceptionally high staff turnover, and resolved to bring greater stability by seeking out well-qualified personnel interested in staying on. The department now has eight to 10 firefighters left out of the 24 Headrick met when he arrived.

"We have a whole new slate of lieutenants, officers in charge of platoons, and seniors who are next in command."

The chief's biggest challenge over the past year, he said, has been recruiting and retaining staff. This was not an easy task to start with, said Headrick. The Yellowknife fire department, charged with emergency medical response as well as firefighting, needed staff with expertise in both areas.

Because of the numbers that left the firefighting force last year, said Headrick, "we had to recruit quite a bit from out of town to come here."

Roughly half of the force's new full-time hires moved up to Yellowknife to take on their positions in the summer of 2008, the chief said. Staff training for last year's hires continues.

"We've done pretty good on our recruitment," said Headrick. "Hopefully they'll want to stay here for many years and raise families."

Unlike fire departments in the south, Yellowknife's stand-alone force cannot rely on departments in neighbouring communities for assistance, which makes training and timing to answer calls more critical.

"There's a lot of equipment we have to become competent in and trained in, so that when we do respond, we're efficient and effective."

Among the department's next challenges, said Headrick, is reducing the number of false alarms. In 2007, the department had almost 500 alarms, 253 of which were false. This amounted to 53 per cent of all calls.

"It does send some warning signals to you," said Headrick.

The force has responded by contacting property owners to take action to limit alarms caused by defective equipment, non-emergency mishaps that set off equipment, and intentional malicious setting off of alarms. A new fee imposed for a fourth false alarm call was part of the solution - charging $1,000 for every false call after the first three.

A more recent challenge the department faces are non-emergency calls to the department by misguided residents. For example, a call through an emergency line for an ambulance to take a family member to hospital for extreme toothache is not justified, said Headrick.

Avoiding non-emergency calls "would free up some of our time," he said. "We operate on a critical schedule."