The Town of Innisfail is sounding the alarm to alert the public that the search for a new Fire Chief is over.
Gary Leith, Director for Protective Services for the Town of Innisfail, is announcing that the new dedicated, full-time chief is Jayme Hendrick. Leith points out that Hendrick has lived in the community all his life and has served there as a paid on-call firefighter for over 25 years. Leith says “I think certainly for continuity it is going to be extremely important as this is now a dedicated position as Fire Chief, which previously the Manager of Protective Services covered that role. I think it is definitely a strong move forward for the fire department itself.” Hendrick also served for just under 20 years as a firefighter for the City of Edmonton and leaves there as an acting Captain.
Leith adds, the Innisfail Fire Department had a Fire Prevention Week open house on Sunday which was really well attended by the community with well over 100 people showing up. He says “during which we did a fire demonstration showing basically the benefits of having smoke detectors in your home and making sure that your night time routine is unplugging things. Making sure that you are closing doors to restrict, if there was a fire, to restrict the spread of that fire until such time as the occupants can get out.”
According to Leith, the Innisfail Fire Department has about 30 volunteer or paid on-call members. They have two full-time members – an Assistant Chief and now a Fire Chief.
