The Municipality of Thorne will benefit from the fire protection and emergency response services of the Shawville-Clarendon Fire Department (SCFD) starting July 1, thanks to a new agreement between the three municipalities.
According to the agreement, which will be in effect until 2028, the SCFD will respond to emergency calls in Thorne’s territory and provide resources such as pumpers, tankers and emergency response units.
Thorne will pay $80,000 per year plus service fees for these services, and will remain responsible for fire hall costs, inspection of vehicles and equipment, as well as the recruiting, training and development of its firefighters.
This deal replaces Thorne’s previous agreement with Otter Lake, which saw the formation of the Pontiac North Fire Department in 2021. In a special council meeting on May 29, Thorne council passed a motion to end its agreement with Otter Lake, providing the required 30-day notice.
Also at that meeting, council passed a motion to hire SCFD chief Lee Laframboise as chief of the Thorne department, which will remain separate from Shawville-Clarendon.
Laframboise said there are five Thorne firefighters aside from himself, many of whom need to be brought back up to speed since they have not been active.
He said the Thorne department has been running practices without equipment for the last month, with the goal of having firefighters ready for July 1 when the agreement kicks in.
“Some suits needed to be ordered new, so they were ordered [ . . . ] We’ve got who’s driving what truck, who’s going to be an officer, and who’s going to be just a firefighter,” he said of the other activities he has been doing since getting hired.
Laframboise said when a call comes in on Thorne’s territory, the six Thorne firefighters will be called to the scene, plus a select crew of SCFD firefighters he has chosen based on the kind of call they are responding to.
He said the agreement will help the Thorne department meet its minimum numbers while still trying to rebuild an independent and full-fledged fire service, which is its long-term goal.
“Picture it like it’s the NHL and you have a hockey team, but you have no players. They’ve got a really nice new hall in Thorne, and they have decent trucks and good equipment, but they have no players,” he said.
Laframboise said he is proud of such a small department for having well-trained firefighters with many courses under their belt, although he said there is room to grow.
“The guys I’ve got back, they’ve got all the courses. They just need to practice and get up to snuff,” he said, adding that he would like to recruit more firefighters to the department.
THE EQUITY reached out to Thorne mayor Karen Daly Kelly several times to learn more about Thorne’s ambitions to rebuild its own fire department, but she did not respond in time for publication.
