OFS District 6’s new chief says hello

KINBURN – It’s been a busy summer for Ottawa Fire Services’ (OFS) new District 6 Chief Adrian Anderson, as he acclimates to his new role in his new community.

The long time Greely volunteer firefighter was picked to replace retired former District 6 Chief Bill Bell, and he has big boots to fill.

Anderson has spent the summer getting more familiar with the West Carleton community, as well as getting used to becoming a full-time OFS firefighter after decades of work as a volunteer.

Last week (Aug. 19), Anderson sat down with West Carleton Online at his Kinburn office in the West Carleton Community Complex to share his history, experience and to talk a little bit about his new role in the community.

Anderson officially took over the role last April, after a career with the OFS starting in June of 2006.

“I started in Osgood, where I think I was 18 at the time,” Anderson, 38, said. “So, I started very young. Osgoode has a water rescue program there, so I was very quick to get in to that. It’s really just been a great journey. I think it was 2014, I worked my way in to what was then a lieutenant’s position at the station in Osgood, where I took on the training portfolio, while also obtaining several water rescue certificates.”

As a volunteer firefighter, it meant Anderson also needed a real job to help pay the bills. When he first started, Anderson had a variety of jobs before working for the City of Ottawa in another capacity. Anderson is married to wife Sarah and has three children including Ella, 16, Austin, 9, and Alyssa, 8.

“I had some construction jobs when I was younger,” he said. “I also worked at the arena in Osgood, just as a maintenance helper there, which ultimately led to a position with Public Works in the traffic operations department and traffic signals. While I was sort of working my way through the ranks with Ottawa fire, I was also working my way through the Public Works Department, and ultimately, I also became a crew leader at traffic signals. I worked my way into a planning position where I was planning for seven or eight years, the construction and maintenance of traffic signals, predominantly the construction side of things.”

Anderson says the two roles were similar in many ways, including what parts of the jobs he liked best.

“Just getting people to work together, overcome challenges, and with that came some emergency response as well,” Anderson said. “You remember the tornado (2018), the derecho (2022)? Things of that nature, sort of coordinating our response. They affected a number of signals downtown. And while I was also doing that, I was still doing fire and responding to emergencies. Ultimately, my passions took me in a trajectory to where I am today. I would say, five, six years ago, I thought, maybe this would be an opportunity for me to be successful as a sector chief within Ottawa fire, and I started to sort of tailor my experience in training, both with public works and with fire, in order to get the experience, the knowledge, to perhaps be a sector chief. It wasn’t really something that I was longing for before that, but definitely some different things sort of steered me in that direction. Mentors, like OFS Chief Paul Hutt, who hired me in District 9 (Osgoode), has been a close mentor of mine since I started, both with staying motivated, committed and delivering on expectations and raising the bar when needed, but also supporting me with my growth as a leader developing staff and leading by example on the fire scene, but also in the station.”

Anderson said he had a number of other mentors as well in both the fire department and Public Works.

“Ultimately, I had the opportunity to actually do a mentorship program that brought me out here to District 6,” Anderson said.

While a lifelong Osgoode resident, Anderson said he has spent important time in the West Carleton area, brought here in both his roles as a firefighter and a Public Works employee, primarily through some of West Carleton’s most recent challenges.

“I did respond as a water rescue tech to the flooding,” Anderson said. “It’s actually more in Cumberland for the first floods. I was out here in West Carleton, Fitzroy Harbour and Constance Bay for the larger flood event in 2019. Yeah, what sort of threw me off a little bit was the rest of the city was kind of operating as if nothing was really happening. Like, just visually, not necessarily the Emergency Operation side of things, but residents outside of these areas that were affected by flooding outside of Britannia, Cumberland, and West Carleton, I don’t think there was as much awareness. But when I had the opportunity to come out here and help with the wellness checks and resident needs and providing a little bit additional level of water safety support, it actually opened my eyes to how close knit the community is out here. The Constance Bay Community Association, the West Carleton Disaster Relief, and how integrated they were with their communities and Emergency Services in the City of Ottawa. So I got to see that, as an emergency responder during those times. Last year, for the floods through Public Works, I actually mentored under Jim Lethbridge, who was the incident commander for Public Works, and there, I actually got a different perspective, a higher-level perspective on emergency management in the City of Ottawa. I got to make a number of different connections, and we did move in to enhanced operations out here. We did deploy some resources out in the area in order to help support residents. I was on the ground. Over at (the Constance Bay community Centre), helping coordinate the Public Works response as the incident commander for the spring freshet in 2025. So, that sort of gave me another perspective on the community, and the level of supports that are out here.”

During this time, Anderson also learned he enjoyed training others.

“I did develop a passion for developing people and through my training portfolio, but also mentorship opportunities,” he said. “I kind of did that informally, both when I was a crew leader, a planner, and a lieutenant at the time. Later, they just reassigned, lieutenants to a captain’s rank, so then, ultimately, I was a captain there. so that’s sort of a very informal synopsis of what sort of brought me here.”

Anderson says he is still learning about the community he now works full-time in.

“I admit, I’m still learning, however what I’ve noticed about their relationship between the fire service and the communities differs than what I experienced in my district,” he said. “Here the local fire stations in the communities are well integrated with their communities. There’s a lot of pride and ownership there, and the communities seem to be centred around their fire service and the services they provide. So, I do see our staff at the fire service and the community, both very supportive. But you have some pretty strong community expectations on what level of services they expect, but they’re also quite proud of their fire services here, and not just in terms of emergency response, but also community events. I don’t know of another rural district that has any more community events that includes their fire services in order to support the community event, but also to allow us to deliver fire prevention and fire education initiatives as well, which is very encouraging because, maintaining that positive working relationship with your community allows you to have that credibility in order to do the job that’s required of us.”

Anderson says he’s learned each West Carleton community is unique in the way they celebrate community, but they all do it with deep love and respect.

“So, every station is unique, and they all have their own way to engage with their community, but they are all centered around our values as a fire service,” he said. “I think it’s fantastic to see things like the upcoming corn boil here at Station 64 in Carp. You were there at the pancake breakfast at the Dunrobin station which raised great funds for a community member and other charities within the area. You had Station 63 and their car wash and a little barbecue. Fitzroy is involved in a number of different things, being a water rescue. They support water safety initiatives. Even though it’s not necessarily in the mandate for fire prevention and education, just knowing the density of the population here that lives and sometimes work next to the Ottawa River or the mighty Carp River too. And so those are important to me, and they all have their own ways of engaging. The Great Galetta Gathering that just took place. They were there too. So, there are great opportunities both to provide those services in terms of fire prevention education.”

Anderson is also happy to see there is an OFS training facility in Carp.

“We have a wonderful training facility called the Line Troop Building,” Anderson said. “That is a fantastic resource for us. It’s over on Craig Side Road and everybody’s contributed to that facility prior to my arrival here. I know you were there for a great program that’s here in the community that I haven’t seen anywhere else. This West Carleton Secondary School (WCSS) program that’s out here, which just blows me away. It’s a fantastic opportunity to engage our future emergency service providers. I’m hoping to continue to leverage that facility for training of our firefighters, and to make it a robust training facility, not just for our specific district, but for the city as a whole. We have a very short time frame. We have other jobs. And so, in the evening, if they’re going to go do training, are they going to travel to the city to go to a central training facility? Why do that when we have, I would say, a world-class facility, right here in our own district, which I’m encouraged to continue to improve.”

Keeping West Carleton’s fire stations stocked with well-trained, dedicated volunteer firefighters will be a priority of Anderson as chief.

“Recruitment and retention are very important for me, so I want to keep those people engaged,” he said. “I want to make sure we’re delivering on those current firefighters’ expectations while also attracting new people that are interested in the fire service.”

OFS Station 61 in Kinburn is on Anderson’s radar as a station that could use some support.

“We’re looking for people to apply to be a firefighter in our Kinburn response area in order to keep our staffing levels up,” he said. “However, the firefighters that are there right now are doing a fantastic job. I just want to continue to put the progress at that station, so those community events also allow us to engage with the community.”

While the chief’s role is incredibly important, it isn’t necessarily the glamour position depicted on television fiction.

“It’s true what I was told, it’s about 95 per cent administration,” Anderson said. “About five per cent is gravy, and emergency response. So, my day-to-day is very different. Every single day, it’s engaging with community partners. It’s engaging with firefighters. It’s developing. What do their short and long-term goals look like here in the district? And I will share with you what some of those are while I’m here. It’s the administrative reporting. It’s answering any questions the councillor (Clarke Kelly) may have. It’s reviewing training records and certifications and making sure we’re compliant. It’s reviewing emergency operation plans for things like the Carp Airport, for example, or the Chats Falls Generating Station. It’s making sure documents are updated. So, there’s a lot of administrative parts to that. I also have three wonderful counterparts, three other rural sector chiefs at the other three rural districts in Ottawa. So, we collaborate a lot on consistency across the rural districts. Everywhere is unique, but there are areas where we can be consistent so that we’re delivering on the expectations of our firefighters. We’re looking to the future. How we can motivate and engage our staff? We usually meet at least every two weeks. I have meetings downtown with the senior leadership team that includes Chief Hutt, all the deputy chiefs and my boss who I report to, deputy chief David André, who’s the deputy chief of operations.”

There’s also a lot of collaboration between the rural and urban firefighters. But focusing on District 6, Anderson says he has a number of priorities for West Carleton as well.

“I set three priority items for District 6, which is six stations here, including Kanata North OFS Station 45 with the composite station (both volunteer and full-time firefighters),” Anderson said. “We have 19 rural members there. So, number one is just stabilize. Just looking at recruitment and retention. What are some things that, over the last little while that we could improve on to meet the expectations of the people that we have here? Some of the administrative things too, formalizing those more in a consistent way, so that’s equal across all our rural districts. So, it helps with reporting and planning.”

Making sure training, equipment and the firefighters themselves are state of the art is priority number two.

“So, another piece, it’s the one that most people seem to be interested in, is modernizing,” Anderson said. “Looking at what does the future of firefighting look like? What are, in terms of our community, risk assessments for the area? What are some emerging trends or development opportunities where we just need to be cognizant of and making sure we have an effective response. But there is so much going on here, I’ll admit that I didn’t know about in terms of the level of professionalism, knowledge, training, experience that was going on here. And I’ll be frank; I just don’t think it was communicated well enough outside of District 6 just to showcase the wonderful programs like the WCSS program is a great example of that. The work that was done at the Line Troop Building before I got here. A great training facility, and it could continue to improve and be a valuable asset. I thought, maybe there’s a little bit of modernization that needed to happen here in terms of the training, but the level of training out here is world class. I’m very happy, and that’s kudos to the people that are already here. And in those training facilitation roles, whether it be an instructor or coordinator, they’re doing a fantastic job. The modernization piece there is just more focusing on documenting and reporting on that part. But one that really is resonating with the district, and that’s what I’m working on right now is professional development.”

Professional development is something Anderson takes very seriously.

“Getting to the next level and staying there and seeing there’s always emerging trends,” he said. “It’s always changing. I had somebody say to me the other day if somebody is in technology and was satisfied with where they’re at, they’ll be obsolete in a week. I feel like it’s the same with firefighting, and I think things are emerging faster and faster all the time. So, I’m working on professional development plans for them, which I call, an individual development plan. And performance evaluations, not necessarily specific to any sort of punitive measures, just ‘hey, this is where you’re at. This is where the expectations are and with your individual development plan. How do we get you there?’ What I’m asking people to do is to advocate for their firefighters, so if there’s something that somebody’s flagged, I don’t know all the people and I have 123 or some odd people out here. I don’t know everybody’s skills and abilities and aspirations. So, I need people to advocate for them if an opportunity comes up. I’d rather send that person than just pick somebody seniority based. There’s part of that and succession planning. So, all I want to hear from everybody is they want to leave the place better than when they started. That’s one of my own personal visions too. So, what does it look like five years from now? How do you develop somebody in order to be better than you when you’re at this level? Five years from now, when they’re going to be succeeding you, or you’re ready for retirement, or you win the lottery and you’re travelling the world. So those are the areas that I’m looking at in terms of professional development right now.”

Andeson says priorities will change as progress is made.

“Objectives are going to change as time goes on, but right now, my priority is mostly the standardizing and then modernizing, then working out with professional development plans, not one at a time, all at the same time,” he said. “Working on maintaining those standards.”

As the community changes so does the training, and that’s where modernization comes in. For example, the community’s first, and one of Ottawa’s earliest Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) is being built on Marchurst Road near the Dunrobin fire hall.

“So, yeah, that is one of many things that are changing out in the community,” Anderson said. “Other things are people purchasing lithium-Ion battery products, that don’t necessarily meet standards, from foreign vendors. So those are other things that are emerging right now. But when it comes to the BESS, I can give people the confidence that even before I was in this role, I did get the opportunity to attend a conference where BESS facility standards and emergency response was discussed. But also, what technologies are out there today that are also emerging to make them safer, more effective, both in terms of providing the services that they’re out there for, but also from a firefighting perspective. Recently, with another facility coming online within the City of Ottawa, I did attend another session very similar to be honest, where we talked specifically about firefighting, and I’m confident in our ability to respond to any BESS Issues that may arise. From a fire perspective, we do have the resources here in the City of Ottawa in order to respond to any these facilities that have any issues. And we’re actively researching and maintaining a current understanding of where the technologies are at.”

All in all, Anderson is happy to bring his career to Ward 5 and District 6.

“I’m excited to be out here,” he said. “I don’t know what the future holds, but in terms of me, I don’t plan on going anywhere, anytime soon. I’m very encouraged. I’m proud to be here in District 6. It’s a privilege to be here with such fantastic and skilled and qualified firefighters, let alone the well-integrated and supportive communities that are out here. I do live in Osgoode. A lot of people focus on that, and I’ve had a few people here recommend houses that are for sale in their communities as they come around. But I live in Osgoode, so it’s a little bit unique circumstance, but I’m confident. We do have a district chief in close proximity to our district and the District 4 chief, who’s available to respond, if needed. Normally, we do on call evenings and weekends. I was on call last night and we had a major incident through the night, but it wasn’t even in my district. I was actually responding somewhere else, and the same goals for any other sector chief. We all support one another when it comes to that, and we have such fantastic and skilled people for emergency response in our stations. We’re well integrated within the station and the communities already. They’ll be able to do the job until I show up and oftentimes, I’ll show up and I let them continue to do what they’re doing because they’re doing such a good job. I’m just there to support, coach and mentor at that point.”