WEYBURN – A veteran of fire departments in Carlyle and Saskatoon has brought his experience and love of fire fighting to the Weyburn Fire Department as the deputy chief and acting fire chief.
Trent Lee was born and raised in Newfoundland, in the small community of Petty Harbour, but he has lived in Western Canada since he first came to Alberta at the age of 19, and six months later moved to Carlyle to drive truck for Spearing Service.
His truck-driving days ended after a semi he was driving was tangled in a 100-vehicle pileup in the fog in Ontario.
“I had no idea how to help. It caused a lot of anxiety and mental anguish, so I quit driving truck,” he said, noting he came back to Carlyle to work in a truck shop. While working there, it was suggested to him to join the local fire department as a volunteer in 1999, which he did.
By 2006, he assumed the position of fire chief after working his way up through the ranks, and taking whatever training he could at the provincial fire college and in the use of fire fighting and rescue equipment.
“For a small rural department, they were very busy for responses in the area,” he said.
Lee remained as Carlyle’s fire chief until 2015. As it wasn’t a full-time paid position, he worked in the parts and service department at Merit Ford, then he left to work for CanElson Drilling as the health and safety supervisor.
CanElson was bought out by Trinidad Drilling in 2015, and a number of staff was let go, so Lee went down to Texas to attend fire college. He redid his qualifications, and went to be a volunteer with the Flint Fire Department, attending a large variety of emergency calls.
He then accepted a position with the Saskatoon Fire Department in September of 2016 as a fire inspector and fire investigator, and he took training to become a dispatcher.
“I loved doing inspections and investigations, but I missed everything to do with fire fighting. I missed the team work, and doing emergency calls, and assisting others with training to increase their confidence and their level of training,” said Lee, noting when a position came open in Weyburn as the deputy chief, he jumped at the opportunity.
He started on Dec. 1, and was in the position for the final month of work for Chief Simon Almond before he left at the end of 2021, and is now the acting fire chief while the City carries out a search for a new chief.
Asked what he enjoys most as a fire fighter, Lee replied, “I love helping people, not just people facing the worst day of their life, but helping people within the department as well with my knowledge base and skills.”
Since taking on the position in Weyburn, Lee said he is quite impressed with the volunteer force, noting, “They are very dedicated. I’m absolutely impressed with their level of professionalism and dedication, and I’m excited to respond with the fire fighters and to help them advance to the next level.”
Training is a constant need in fire fighting, he said, not only to keep up to date on the different types of equipment used, but also in the many different way to fight fires or to respond to emergency situations, such as highway accidents. Fire fighters need to know how to rescue people from a recent model vehicle, which will be damaged quite differently from an older model.
His goal is to train the personnel in the worst-case scenarios, “so everything else comes naturally.”
Once fire fighters are drilled in the most difficult situations, when an emergency response arises, they know what to do automatically and respond accordingly. The Weyburn FD has had a steady flow of calls since he started, he noted.
Among the things a fire fighter has to know are the differences in how structures are damaged in a fire. For example, a fire in a “legacy house”, or one that is fairly old, will take a while to spread, while a newer house will see a fire spread very quickly, and there is the danger of the house collapsing in on itself once the fire is far gone.
“Fires burn hotter and faster than they ever did,” he noted.
He is also hoping the fire department can return to making inspections of business premises, as this is a valuable preventative measure to help ensure a business stays safe from fire and the damages that can result from a blaze. Many inspections can’t be performed now due to the restrictions under the COVID pandemic.
“The more we can do to prevent fire from happening the better,” said Lee. “I’ve investigated so many fires that were easily preventable. That’s our goal, for people to be happy and healthy and to stay safe as they live and work.”
