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Growing Up Fire
Jamie Coutts, Your Host of Growing Up Fire
During my time in Slave Lake had the opportunity to lead a 5 hall, 125 members regional fire service, and search and rescue team. In 2011 The Slave Lake Wildland Fire burned down 440 homes in our region, including 35% of the Town of Slave Lake. This disaster prompted major changes and challenges. Over the next 8 years we rebuilt 2 firehalls, and built a Firesmart crew (only one of its kind in Canada at that time). We also built a 12 acre “Disaster Village” training site and started down the trail of training our people to be prepared to assist all of Alberta with disasters. This help included: 2013 Southern Alberta floods, 8 train derailments, 2015 High Level fires, 2016 Fort McMurray Wildfire that burned 10% of the City of Fort McMurray (90,000 people), and the High Level complex fires in 2019. Our constant interagency training and exercises helped prepare thousands of responders in Alberta and beyond.
Everything Hinges on Leadership
Les Karpluk, Fire Chief Author Speaker
I was fortunate to hold several positions within the fire department during my career from 1982-2014, which included Battalion Chief, Deputy Chief and Fire Chief. In 2009 I was humbled to be recognized by the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs as the Fulltime Career Chief of the Year. From 2014 to present I have spoken about leadership across Canada and in the United States over 70 times and have written over 100 articles about leadership for online magazines. Since 2014, I have been consulting in the fire service writing master plan, strategic plans and fire service reviews for volunteer, paid-on-call and career departments across Canada. Since 2018, I have been the Fire Chief of the Waskesiu Fire Department for Parks Canada. Since retiring from my career position as Fire Chief, I have coauthored two books and authored three books on leadership. Being an adjunct instructor for Dalhousie University and Lakeland College combined with my speaking engagements and consulting keeps me engaged with the amazing people in the fire service. Building relationships and trust within the fire station is what leadership is all about, and my philosophy is “Everything Hinges on Leadership.”
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