YCMTSU New Foundland – Disbanded Fire Department Being Rebuilt
A fire department in New Foundland is rebuilding after 20 members resigned en mass last month following allegations of sexual harassment leveled by a female firefighter. The Spaniard’s Bay Fire Department is preparing to resume operations with a new complement of firefighters after having been disbanded.
Last week, twenty-eight members were appointed to the re-built department, with 21 of the 28 having previously served in the department. The department must receive approval from the Fire and Emergency Services-Newfoundland and Labrador (FES-NL) before resuming operations.
At the heart of the controversy were allegations leveled last November by Brenda Seymour, a volunteer firefighter as well as a Town Councilwoman for Spaniard’s Bay. She accused the fire chief and others of blatant sexually harassing behavior, as evidenced by the video below.
At a council meeting on January 19, twenty members of the department quit including the fire chief. Vocal supporters of the firefighters rallied on January 21, 2016, and some in the department have called upon Seymour to leave the department. A Facebook group, Concerned Citizens of Spaniard’s Bay, has also been created.
Shouldn’t Newfoundland be one word?
It’s nice to know (in a disappointing way) that American firefighters don’t have the market cornered when it comes to being woefully unaware of the fact that women are in the fire service to stay, and there is NOTHING those misogynistic Neanderthals can do about it.