A message of thanks to Wildwood/150 Mile Fire Departments

Over the weekend - members of the Wildwood & 150 Mile Volunteer Fire Departments (VFD) were called upon not once, but twice! to emergencies in Williams Lake (Friday night's fire at the former Williams Inn and Sunday's Chlorine Incident at the local Recreation Complex) to help out the local Williams Lake Fire Department

While true the City has a 'Mutual Aid' agreement with both of these Fire Departments - this past weekend's emergencies could have turned out worse if these two Fire Departments had emergencies in their response areas...

As such - this City of Williams Lake resident is deeply appreciative that members of both the 150 Mile House & Wildwood VFD's were able/willing to respond to two emergencies in a time span of 2 days... and I've sent an email this evening to Brian Carruthers - City of WL CAO & Williams Lake Mayor Kerry Cook encouraging them to do the same - both from an Staff and Political perspective to show our (Williams Lake resident) appreciation for 'having our back' as I'm confident that our residents would do the same for our rural neighbours in the Cariboo Regional District...

SBF

Update #1 (Sunday Feb 26th at 10:09pm) - 'Anonymous #1' earlier tonight told me that I forget to thank the Williams Lake firefighters and other emergency personnel, city workers, or the people who are helping the fire victims and of course, we should.  But I felt when I blogged the above - that it would be stating the obvious however I thank him/her for reminding me to thank the WL Fire Department, all city workers who assisted with the 'Howard Johnson (old Williams Inn) fire and the chlorine incident at the Sam Ketchum Pool, or those who assisted or have provided assistance to the fire victims (Howard Johnson fire) either this past Saturday or today (Sunday) by way of clothing, food, money, or other forms of assistance... if you want to help out the victims of the Howard Johnson fire, see more information here

Update #2 (Sunday, Feb 26th at 10:12pm) - As I noted earlier - I had suggested to the City CAO/Mayor Cook that a 'Letter of Appreciation' be sent to the Wildwood/150 Mile VFD's for their assistance for the two emergencies in Williams Lake this past weekend.  The bulk of the email that I sent was:

I know the last couple of days probably have been hectic with the fire at the Howard-Johnson Hotel and now the chlorine incident at the CMRC earlier today…

As it has been reported by the local media that the City’s Fire Department has called upon both Wildwood/150 Mile House Fire Departments for assistance for back-to-back emergencies (as per our Mutual Aid agreements) – I think it would be appropriate and prudent to send a “Letter of Deep Appreciation” to these two Fire Departments. Certainly – if there had been emergencies Friday night and today in Wildwood/150 Mile – the City could have easily found itself overwhelmed responding to these two emergencies…

As they say – easy to become complement with our emergency services until they are maxed to the limit with compounded emergencies in a short time span…

My suggestion would be two letters – one from administration (CAO) thanking Wildwood/150 Mile VFD’s from a ‘Staff’ perspective and one from Mayor/Council thanking, again, 150 Mile/Wildwood VFD, on behalf of the citizens of Williams Lake for backing up City emergency crews… especially in such a short time span… this could apply as well to the WL RCMP who have responded to a fair number of emergencies in the last 10 days including the fire Sat am, the chlorine incident today, and the 2 ‘false’ bomb threats in the last 10 days

I have received the following response from Brian Carruthers:

Steve, I appreciate your support of our emergency services. However, I will be frank in telling you that I really don't require you telling when and how a letter of appreciation is required from the CAO. I am very capable of knowing when and to who letters of appreciation are required. I have no issue if you want to pass on praise and support of our emergency services and I know you are trying to help but I do not require an 'arm chair' CAO. Please refrain from sending me e-mails suggesting how to do my job as it is somewhat insulting.

As requested by Mr. Carruthers - I will no longer send him or Williams Lake City Council any emails in regards to how to move the City forward on various issues... as it appears that my input is no longer welcome at Williams Lake City Hall but it would have been a good thing on his part if he had only said "Thanks for the input and we'll take it under advisement"