"We'd like to address rumours that are currently circulating about our safety practices regarding the pandemic. It's clear that there are people with concerns about the number of people at the Fire Hall, and the frequency that these gatherings are occurring. Since COVID-19 forced the 'new normal', MFD is doing all we can to protect our members and the public from contracting and spreading this terrible virus. Meetings, training nights, extra duties and more have been limited as much as we possibly can. In the early stages of the pandemic, we were fortunate to have only 1 (yes, ONE) emergency call in almost a 30 day span. There are, though, tasks that must be completed on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis, and most of these tasks require going to the fire hall. As well, we were forced to convene crews for non-emergency meetings on April 6th, and again on April 22nd. First was to fit our members for medical masks, to ensure we could respond to Medical First Response calls; the second was to ready our equipment and crew for grassfires (which is normally done in late March). After delaying as long as we could, the fast melting snow and increasing temperatures forced us to convene - and it's a good thing we did, as May 2nd saw us respond to two grassfires totalling more than 8 hours of work.

We take every precaution possible while at the firehall or while in fire trucks together:
• physical distancing where possible,
• wearing surgical masks in the fire hall, trucks, and on scene
• wearing latex gloves at all times
• using hand sanitizer frequently
• wiping down common touchpoints with an alcohol-based cleaner multiple times daily.
We want this pandemic to end as much (if not more) than you do. Every time the pager goes off, we know we're headed to war with not just the emergency we've been called to (a fire, MVC, medical call, etc), but also at risk of an invisible enemy that we certainly do not want to be exposed to while serving in a volunteer essential service capacity.

If you have questions, concerns, or comments about our operations, please reach out to us directly at milletfire@millet.ca, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or via the Town of Millet administration staff. The rumour mill need not be turning, as our volunteers are working very hard to stay prepared for all emergencies, including COVID-19"