By Keith Lacey
A grandfather who lost two grandchildren in a tragic house fire 17 months ago made an impassioned plea to a coroner?s inquest jury to recommend more full-time firefighters be hired to work in Valley East.
Robert McLean told the jury, ?You can?t put a price on human life,? and how he strongly believes having full-time firefighters at a fire station only one mile away the day a fire broke out at 4141 Roy St. in Hanmer would have resulted in three lives being saved.
McLean?s grandchildren Asha-Jade McLean, 3, her brother Ellias McLean, 4, and their great-grandmother Pearl Shaw, 75, perished in the deadly blaze, which broke out just after noon on April 22, 2001.
The inquest jury heard from several lawyers with standing during closing submissions Thursday afternoon and all day Friday.
Dr. Peter Clarke, coroner for this inquest, gave the two-man, two-woman jury the weekend off before asking them to begin deliberations Monday at the Sudbury courthouse.
McLean said Valley East does not have an adequate fire department to serve almost 25,000 residents.
Politicians have to start recognizing the importance of fire safety and it?s time for the Greater Sudbury council to ensure several more full-time firefighters are hired and placed in Valley East, said McLean.
The inquest has heard Valley East has only six full-time firefighters and usually only one on duty at any given time. The full-timers are complemented by a brigade of three dozen volunteers.
All full-time staff work out of the central hall in Val Therese. Two fire stations in Hanmer and Val Caron are unmanned, but fire equipment is accessible.
McLean, with his daughter Bobbi beside him, said this tragedy could have been prevented if Valley East residents had access to the same level of fire protection services citizens in the city boundaries of Sudbury enjoy.
Sean McManus, a lawyer representing the Ontario Professional Fire Fighters Association and Sudbury Professional Fire Fighters Association, told the four jurors their recommendations would hold tremendous weight in setting fire policy in Ontario.
The most important recommendation the jury could adopt is to agree there should be four full-time firefighters at all three Valley East fire stations around the clock, said McManus.
?We are all aware of budgetary restraints, but we should be equally aware of the safety of firefighters and citizens,? he said. ?If all three stations had four full-time firefighters available, they would be able to provide quality fire service to all of Valley East.?
The current system is ?inadequate? and as one witness testified tantamount to ?a game of Russian roulette? the city lost 17 months ago.
?I suggest you would dramatically have increased the odds of a successful rescue of Asha-Jade, Ellias and Pearl Shaw? if four full-timers were available at the Hanmer fire station that day, he said.
?I?m sure you will agree with me that at the end of the day, that the status quo is no longer acceptable.?
It would cost just over $200 on the average property tax bill to hire 30 additional firefighters for Valley East, but that?s less than the price of a chocolate bar each day, he said.
Every citizen of Valley East should also be sent a notice informing them about fire protection services, response time information and staffing and equipment, said McManus.
?To make informed decisions, the public has to know what levels of service they are receiving.?
A provincial act gave the Ontario Fire Marshal?s office a broad range of monitoring and enforcement authority over municipal fire services in 1997, said McManus.
The OFM does a terrific job with public education and fire prevention, but hasn?t done nearly enough with this additional power to force municipalities like Valley East to improve services, he said.
?You can have guidelines, standards and benchmarks?all the paper you want?but these guidelines and benchmarks have not worked to date,? he said.
An independent review committee should be mandated to ensure the OFM is enforcing minimal staffing and service levels at municipalities across Ontario, and have the power to force OFM management to make these municipalities enact established service levels, he said.
Every municipal government in Ontario should have to establish minimal levels of service, which meet established internationally approved levels of fire protection service within five years, he said.
Peter Archambault, a lawyer representing the City of Greater Sudbury, said ?this fire was an anomaly? as it burned for a long time before being detected and neighbours, volunteer firefighters and professionals did everything in their power to conduct a rescue that tragic day.
?It was a properly conducted response to a fire? despite the tragic results, said Archambault.
Every volunteer firefighter who testified outlined how they received intensive training over many months and there?s no questioning they all acted properly and heroically that day, he said.
?The fact is this was a very well advanced fire by the time 911 was called?even the fastest response in this case may not have been enough,? he said.
Public education to ensure there are working fire alarms, carbon monoxide detectors and planned escape routes is essential to ensuring a similar tragedy doesn?t happen again, he said.
?We need a whole change of attitude of how dangerous fires are? and how fast they can get out of control and endanger lives, he said.
It?s been suggested Valley East has a history of inadequate fire protection services and some believe it?s only through luck a tragedy like this didn?t happen before this one, said Archambault.
He suggested that the composite fire department in the Valley does an outstanding job with the resources available and that?s why there have been so few serious incidents.
The City of Greater Sudbury faces enormous financial challenges with a recent report indicating an annual deficit for the next several years.
The fact is property taxes would have to be nearly doubled to hire any significant numbers of full-time firefighters and many homeowners simply can?t handle such a hit, he said.
Public education, getting more volunteer firefighters on board and making the average citizen take responsibility to ensure their own home is fire safe are just as important as hiring more firefighters and purchasing new equipment, he said.
