Ian and Tammy Mudde complained to the Municipality of South Dundas about the fire department’s lack of action when called to their farm on July 28.
South Dundas fire chief gone after wheat field fire debacle
Nelson Zandbergen
Farmers Forum
SOUTH DUNDAS — Two months after controversy erupted over a local fire department’s handling of a South Dundas wheat-field fire and its fire chief has left the job.
The municipality announced the departure of Fire Chief Jeremy Aldred-Hughes on Sept. 29 but offered no details on why he’s leaving the position other than to “pursue new professional opportunities.”
The municipal statement lauds Aldred-Hughes for serving “with dedication and distinction, leading the Fire Department through key initiatives that enhanced emergency response, firefighter training, regional collaboration and community safety.”
The statement concluded that “South Dundas will be assessing the vacancy and determining an appropriate plan to fill it at a later date. Thanks to our dedicated volunteer firefighters, we remain fully capable to respond to any fire-related emergency during this time.”
Alldred-Hughes is the third fire chief to leave the South Dundas fire department in the last decade. The municipality has been hiring professional chiefs to oversee its volunteer complement of firefighters for at least 10 years.
His departure comes two months after Iroquois farm couple, Ian and Tammy Mudde, went to the media with their dissatisfaction over the way a July 28 fire was fought in their wheat field.
They contend that the outgoing fire chief forbade full-sized fire trucks and tankers from driving into the field — which was rock-hard during the dry summer — to hose down the flames sparked by a baler. Instead, the fire chief, who had recommended the purchase of a $140,000 wildfire truck with a smaller tank and a garden hose fitting, sent that into the field along with firefighters on foot equipped with brooms and backpack sprayers.
Meanwhile, Ian Mudde scrambled to plow around the field and prevent the fire from spreading while municipal water tankers sat parked and unused along the road. The fire lasted for hours and risked burning up the farmers’ combine.
The municipality and chief maintained that there was a policy preventing fire trucks from going into fields because of recent incidents in which the increasingly large vehicles got stuck and were at risk of being unavailable to fight other fires.
Mudde acknowledged that the municipality hasn’t connected the chief’s departure to his and his wife’s complaint. “I wasn’t out to look for somebody to lose their job. I was looking for accountability,” he told Farmers Forum.
The farmer surmised that fire trucks would now drive into fields again, as conditions permit. “I’m pretty sure that policy has been changed. I don’t even think there ever was a policy,” he suggested.
