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Celebrating 75 Years: Fire Chiefs unite at Brandon Emergency Services Conference
This year the Manitoba Association of Fire Chiefs (MAFC) is celebrating 75 years of supporting their firefighting team across the province. Established in 1950, the organization was founded by a group committed to strengthening the fire service and advocating for it at the provincial level. Recognizing the importance of a unified voice, they aimed to address issues affecting fire services across Manitoba. Their mission was to support all branches of the fire service—full-time, part-time, and rural—by fostering collaboration, sharing experiences, and exchanging ideas among colleagues from every corner of the province. The MAFC consists of a President and Board of Directors and a membership of Fire Chiefs and Deputy Chiefs from across the Province. The Board of Directors, elected by the membership is made up of representatives from City and Municipal Fire Departments, Mutual Aid Districts, Industry representatives and is supported by the Office of the Fire Commissioner. The Manitoba Association of Fire Chiefs represent over 170 Fire Departments across Manitoba. An important milestone: On June 20th, 1959 Winnipeg received its first three digit emergency number for police, fire, and ambulance in North America – “Dial 999” was eventually changed to 911. This is just one of the many things the MAFC advocated for since their inception in 1950. Now celebrating 75 years of supporting their fellow EMS members, Brandon EMS Chief, Terry Parlow says this is a significant milestone, and one that will be celebrated at their upcoming Brandon Emergency Services Conference taking place at the Keystone Centre in early September. The 2025 MAFC Conference will be held in conjunction with the 2025 Emergency Service Conference at the Brandon Keystone Center on September 3 – 6. The Emergency Services Conference offers hundreds of Fire Chiefs, Firefighters, Paramedics, and Emergency Managers from across Manitoba to access high-quality instructors, hands-on training in all aspects of emergency response, and showcasing over 50,000 square feet of exhibitor space for a firsthand look at the innovative products and services available to the industry. It is in conjunction with the Emergency Services Conference, the Manitoba Association of Fire Chiefs is celebrating its 75th Anniversary. "This is an opportunity for us to celebrate 75 years of the Manitoba Association of Fire Chiefs serving and protecting our communities," says Terry Parlow. "This is the fire chiefs from all across our province coming together to celebrate and recognize the significance of being part of this association and being part of giving back to our communities. It's made-up of full-time professional and volunteer, paid, on call and so it's our opportunity to get together and celebrate," he adds. "It's the 75th year. We do come together every year for our conference and this year we've added a little bit of a special twist in the sense of we're recognizing the 75th anniversary of the Manitoba Association of Fire Chiefs, but we're also teaming that up with the Brandon Emergency Services Conference, where we're training the chiefs and the firefighters and paramedics from across the province who serve our communities." A close-knit group! Parlow says the Association is a very close-knit group from northern Manitoba right down to the southern border, and east to west. "We rely on each other to train together and work together. And then as we're seeing right now across Manitoba, we're responding to each other's needs across the province, especially now with the current wildfires that we are seeing across the province," explains Parlow. "So we're working with the Office of the Fire Commissioner and obviously our First Nations and Government of Canada, but it is working as one team." Fire Chiefs step up with staff and equipment for northern aid "It's quite humbling to see the amount of response that we have seen across the province from obviously the chiefs taking on the active role of making sure that they have the staffing to provide care and for their own communities, but also sending as many people and equipment as they can to northern communities in order to provide them as much support as we can," he shares. "So we're all working as one solid team. Brandon itself has sent several teams up there and we currently have some of our paramedics working in northern Manitoba to provide that level of support as well for the medical part," adds Parlow. Is there a need for more volunteers? "First, I guess every single person that is available to help is much needed and appreciated from the communities in northern Manitoba," says Parlow. "But the biggest part of it is when the call for help has gone out the chiefs and the firefighters from across all Manitoba, the all the departments, volunteer and full-time departments have answered the call." "We ourselves have answered the call several times as well as all of our neighboring communities here. Wawanesa has been sending teams up weekly to ensure that there's adequate staffing to assist with putting out the fires as much as we can. And once again, we are working with the natural resources and the wildfire teams as well. So it's just a team approach. Team Manitoba." How can the public help? "I think it's just the supporting of the need. I think what this has brought up is that across Manitoba we're seeing that ... you may think that it's not going to happen to your community, but it very well could. So in ensuring that the funding, the financial support is there to ensure that the equipment is all in the proper care." "And also that if you are a member of the community and you're feeling the need to get involved with your local fire department, I know fire departments across the province are at times struggling to find those residents in the city or the towns that want to step up and be a member of a volunteer fire department, but also any department." "This is just from my experience as I'm not speaking for all the departments across Manitoba," adds Parlow, "but I do know that there is always a need for a recruitment across the whole province and that goes especially for the volunteer departments across the province that are struggling at times to make sure that they have adequate residents and adequate numbers of staff to actually respond to calls." Significant changes have been seen over the past 75 years! There are many changes that we can name over the past 7 decades; population size, building codes, smoke alarms, indoor sprinkler systems ... just to name a few. The 911 dispatch centre in Brandon is a major addition to the response time to emergencies of every kind in the province. Technology and training would be two of the most important changes over the past 75 years. "The technology is astounding. It's actually changing monthly," says Parlow. "Some of the technology that is coming out now, it's coming out quicker .. coming out also are techniques on how to actually go into a fire ground and also survive a situation in which you're possibly trapped. That's why we have for the first time ever across the province we're having hands on training on fire ground survival." Fire ground survival training is new to all departments in the province. Parlow says they are just starting to teach their own staff these valuable tools on ways to stay safe, or find safety, in life-threatening situations. "So we're just new to it ourselves. So even just that - teaching them how to protect themselves and save themselves if they're in a dangerous situation which they're trapped, these are necessary tools. So that in itself is something that we're excited to offer this year at the conference." "But the technology is astounding! The changes that we see ... from the drones to how we're fighting the wildfires obviously up north, but across the province and you know, just the techniques that we're using for going into structure fires and such like that. So it is amazing how much it's changed since then and it's changing, like I said, weekly." he adds. Brandon Emergency Services Conference September 3-6. Registration deadline is this Friday "The only thing that I'd like to add is that we're excited to host and welcome Manitoba's fire chiefs and firefighters, paramedics from across the province. And if you are interested, this is the last week to register and registration is open until August15th and you can go to the Brandon Emergency Services Conference website for more information and to register for the Sept 3-6 conference." Fire departments take note! Ag Days Gives Back is granting $2000 to 15 rural fire departments in Manitoba. The call out for applications is on now until November 1, 2025.