Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (Sept 05/01) - Shoddy work performance and rising dissension among the rank-and-file membership of the Rankin Inlet Volunteer Fire Brigade has led to the hamlet firing the community's fire chief.

Former fire chief Roger Aksadjuak was let go by the hamlet shortly after a letter of complaint was filed by a member of the fire brigade.

Hamlet SAO Ron Roach met with brigade members to substantiate the complaints, which more than 95 per cent of the members upheld.

Roach says there had been many verbal complaints about Aksadjuak's job performance in the past, but none were put in writing and submitted to the hamlet.

"The former chief was dismissed for non-performance of his duties," says Roach.

"That included a lack of support from his own fire brigade."

Roach says he voiced his concerns to Aksadjuak on many occasions, but his job performance never improved.

He says the Rankin search and rescue committee had asked the former chief to submit a list of equipment and training his brigade needed -- which the hamlet had allocated funding for -- and nothing was ever done.

"He (Aksadjuak) was given every opportunity to improve the fire department and his own work habits and just would not comply," said Roach.

The hamlet has appointed Ambrose Karlik as acting fire chief, and a request for funding has been sent to the Department of Community Government and Transportation to hire a full-time fire chief and two full-time firefighters to be stationed at the Rankin Inlet airport.

"If we get the funding for these guys, they would work very closely with our volunteer fire department.

"Their main focus would be the airport, but they'd still be available to train local volunteer firefighters."

Gambling with lives

Rankin Inlet Volunteer Fire Brigade president Ron Bailey says fire fighting and prevention is not something that should be taken lightly.

The haphazard training habits of the former chief, coupled with the poor condition of the firefighters' equipment, seriously depleted the brigade's ability to deal with fire calls and had placed the community in unnecessary peril.

Inspections conducted after Aksadjuak's dismissal showed about 55 per cent of the department's fire hoses to be unserviceable.

Bailey says the brigade had lost confidence in the former chief and fire station morale was incredibly low.

He says with new equipment in place on the truck and regular, spirited fire practice taking place every Monday evening, the volunteer brigade's confidence in answering fire calls has greatly increased.

"Education and prevention saves people's lives and we weren't doing any of that -- not even holding fire practice," says Bailey.

"At the end of our former chief's term, he wasn't even attending fire calls.

"Roger is a good person, but he just wasn't fulfilling his obligations as fire chief."