There’s a new chief in the Foothills.
Rick Saulnier, who has been with the Foothills Fire Department since 2012, began his role as Foothills fire chief on Feb. 1.
The first few days have been busy as he adjusts to his new position.
“It’s not really a struggle but it’s been busy trying to wrap my head around some of the stuff to do administratively,” said Saulnier.
He started his fire career part-time as a volunteer with the Okotoks Fire Department at the end of 2006, and when an opening came available for captain at the Heritage Pointe fire station in 2012, he took a chance and made firefighting a full-time gig.
“I have to give some credit to the Okotoks Fire Department for where I am today, because that’s where I started,” said Saulnier. “They taught me a lot, and it was a really good organization to work for.”
After being captain for three years, he applied for a fire inspector/investigator position and was in that role for two years until becoming deputy fire chief in 2017.
For him, being a full-time firefighter is about working with the community and people, as well as educating the public on fire safety and prevention. That work extends to schools, children, homeowners, business owners and forestry, he said.
“That’s the most gratifying thing for me, just doing that education piece with the community,” said Saulnier. “I think it’s huge.”
Making the move to take on the captain position in 2012 was a milestone in his life, and a decision he second-guessed until he donned the uniform.
He’d come from a full-time job he loved and working part-time as a volunteer firefighter, and taking the plunge was exciting and nerve-racking.
“I loved what I was doing,” said Saulnier. “You always wonder what this next step is going to be in your life and if it’s the right step to take.
“It’s the unknown and I think, looking back, that was probably one of the biggest moments of my life, was deciding, making that decision to go from a volunteer to a full-time member.”
There have been a lot of successes while on call over the years – like the night Saulnier and his crew were called out to a home where the owner had woken in the middle of the night and smelled smoke, without any indication of where it was coming from.
As they pulled up to the home there was a faint haze, but he said they chalked it up to someone’s wood-burning stove in the area.
They searched the home for hours but couldn’t find the source of the smoke, he said. Then they listened.
“I told everyone to be quiet, don’t make a sound, and we listened,” said Saulnier. “We could hear a crackling up in the roof.”
It didn’t take long then to find a black hue around a light socket in the ceiling, and the team prepared to knock down the fire. It was over in a matter of minutes, he said.
The situation could have had a much different outcome if they hadn’t taken the time to search the entire home, he said.
“We managed to save the home,” said Saulnier. “We actually had the homeowner come back a couple of days later with his insurance adjuster thanking us for the job we did because it saved the home. So we took that as a big win.”
They’re not always wins.
One moment sticks in Saulnier’s mind years later – the first time he had to deal with a fatality.
Fire was called to the scene of an accident where an elderly couple had been travelling home at night and struck a moose on the highway. The woman died on-scene and Saulnier was tending to her husband.
“He was asking about his wife, and you knew it wasn’t good,” he said. “So you had to try to comfort him and at the same time let him know his wife was in good hands, which she was.
“But the outcome was not very good in that and she ended up passing away. That was probably one of my first calls where I had to deal with that.”
He said it never gets easier to handle those situations, though firefighters have internal resources and mechanisms they rely on to get them through traumatic scenes, including talking to one another.
It’s something you learn and grow from, he said, especially when you’re not accustomed to handling the situation.
“You go through all the scenarios in your head of how to prepare for that, but when it really happens you realize you haven’t truly prepared to see that and to deal with that,” said Saulnier. “It never gets easier, but we learn to handle it differently.”
Moving forward, Saulnier said he intends to continue building the team and developing the great fire department that is already in place.
He said he’s honoured and excited to become fire chief for Foothills County.
“There are guys who go through their whole fire careers and don’t even make it to captain,” said Saulnier. “I find myself truly blessed and honoured to find myself where I am today. I think it’s huge, it’s a huge thing.”
