TOWNSHIP DEPARTMENT INFORMATION TOWNSHIP DEPARTMENT INFORMATION 18 Zorra Now | Fall 2026 Zorra Now | Fall 2026 19 would then have to call the fire dispatch number to find out the details. “Response times were further improved in 1997 with the introduction of the 911 system in Oxford County,” Mitchell wrote in his history book account. As part of the transition, “the roads and sideroads were renamed or renumbered to make locating the emergency scene faster and easier.” Updated versions of the pagers are still in use today. Because the radio frequency technology of the pagers is much more reliable across the Uniondale Station service area than any cellphone network, they still provide the initial signal to firefighters that they’re needed. Once a page is detected, firefighters use their smartphone to check the app and find out call details. Another big change is the coordination that now takes place between the three fire stations in Zorra Township. For many years, Embro, Thamesford and Uniondale operated as separate fire departments, competing in some ways for the attention and resources of the municipal government upon which they largely rely for funding. Throughout that time, it was a big thing if one department had to call upon another for support. For structure fires, it became common to send out a call to a neighbouring department for additional water in the form of a tanker truck. But actually putting out the call for additional help in the form of firefighters was rare. “Even when I started in 2011, it was a lot of ‘us’ and ‘them’,” current Uniondale District Chief Matheson said. Because there wasn’t regular interaction between members of the three departments and they had separate chiefs, there was a reluctance to call for additional help. The mindset persisted that the core Uniondale firefighters – or, correspondingly, the Embro and Thamesford crews in their service areas – should be able to handle it themselves. “In October 2009, the largest change to the fire service in Zorra Township in over 30 years took place when Council hired Jeff Smith from the Norfolk Fire Service as the first ever Fire Chief for the Zorra Fire and Emergency Services,” Mitchell wrote in his history book account. “With this re-organization, the individual fire departments in Thamesford, Embro and Uniondale became known as Station #1 Thamesford, Station #2 Embro, and Station #3 Uniondale.” Matheson says that since the amalgamation, thanks in large part to three successive Zorra Fire Chiefs who bought into and wholeheartedly supported the new model, the “us versus them” feeling is a thing of the past. A call to Embro or Thamesford for additional water is now “instantaneous” if it’s a structural fire call, he said. As for additional firefighters, “nobody’s afraid to call anybody else for help.” When a 911 call is directed Uniondale’s way and the firefighters’ pagers go off, their responses to the dispatch app on their smartphones informs Matheson how many crew members are available at that time. For those arriving at the fire station first who take on the task of loading the trucks with gear, a screen on the wall beside the big rolling doors shows where exactly each firefighter is in relation to the emergency site. “If I see that we might be short-staffed, I’ll call (the other Zorra stations) right away. If they come and it turns out they’re not needed, that’s fine. We can send them home.” Although this isn’t universal across Ontario or even across Zorra Township, Uniondale’s protocol has always been to load the trucks with gear then proceed to the emergency site with firefighters who arrived early to the station on the trucks. Any crew member too far away to respond that quickly proceeds to the call location on their own. Before the smartphone app, King recalls, the protocol was to proceed to the end of the firehall driveway, wait a few seconds to see if any other crew members were on their way to the station, then hurry to the emergency site. A version of that protocol remains in place today. Matheson notes that he’s currently the Uniondale firefighter residing furthest from the station and, often, he’ll know from his smartphone app that several firefighters are already en route to the station and he can instead proceed directly to the call location to assess the situation and establish a response plan. Training has also changed dramatically. Matheson was one of the first Uniondale firefighters hired under a training regimen introduced in 2010 requiring eight months of sessions held during weekends prior to the new recruits officially joining the force. “Before that it was basically ‘here’s your helmet. We’ll train you as we go’.” In the years since, training requirements have become even more rigorous. Liability – for the firefighters themselves and for the township for which they serve – is a major driver but so is the increasing complexity of the scenarios to which volunteer fire departments might find themselves summoned. “In the late 1970s and early 1980s the Uniondale Fire Department might respond to 10-15 emergency calls per year, almost all of which were some type of fire,” Mitchell wrote in his East Nissouri history book account. “Throughout the late 1980s and into the 1990s the role of the fire department evolved to include attending more motor vehicle collisions (MVCs) as well as medical emergencies.” “Currently the local station responds to 2530 calls per year including assisting Embro and Thamesford at larger fires.” Matheson confirmed that number is still roughly accurate today, referring to the Uniondale crew as “an average 30-to-40 call hall” – significantly fewer than some volunteer fire departments in Ontario that are located close to 400-series highways with a high number of MVC calls. Matheson explains that, nowadays, the training required of anyone joining a volunteer fire department in Ontario makes them fully qualified to apply for professional firefighter positions on any city force. That’s great for building a crew that can focus entirely on putting that training into action without hesitation, but he also knows that “some departments struggle” finding replacements when firefighters retire. So far, Uniondale has not faced that challenge. “For any of our new recruits, (the training regimen) is a huge ask in terms of commitment . . . And it always amazes me that, every time we need new recruits, we always find them.” Reflecting on this, and looking back at photos of “The original 16” in Ron King’s scrapbook, Matheson notes that the face of volunteer fire protection in the Uniondale area has changed in 50 years. Back then, a few of the men who answered Councillor Dave Slater’s call hadn’t yet begun having kids but most had young families at home. New recruits now, the current Uniondale District Chief says, tend to be younger with no kids and the availability to commit every weekend for several months for training. Plus, almost all of those “Original 16” worked – either on their farm or for an employer nearby – within the Uniondale force’s service area. “That’s part of the thinking in wanting to have a few more people recruited (Uniondale now has 18 firefighters and would like to recruit one more) or in putting out the call to another station for help.” “Because when you get to a fire scene, when things start rolling, you can sometimes need a lot of people.” One thing that certainly hasn’t changed is the camaraderie that forms the basis of every well-executed emergency response. From the beginning on Jan. 1, 1976, the firefighters from the Uniondale hall have been able to trust they have back-up from everyone else on the force. “The guys are like a big family,” King stated, while Matheson added that “you never worry about whether you’re making the right decision in the moment because you always know there are a bunch of other firefighters right there with you, looking at the same situation and supporting you.”
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