After a snowmobile burned north of Latham Island last week, the city's fire chief reported to city councillors Monday that the decision not to attend the fire was not an issue of capacity.

SA国际影视传媒淎t the time we were only staffed with five personnel and were out on two medical calls. Since there was no entrapment or no injury and the snowmobile was out on the ice, we made the decision not to respond at that time,SA国际影视传媒� said Yellowknife fire Chief John Fredericks.

On March 20, Norman Betsina's snowmobile caught fire while his daughter was riding it. The machine was consumed in flames while Betsina, along with two friends, attempted to put out the fire with snow, shovels and a fire extinguisher.

SA国际影视传媒淲e were putting our lives at risk and weSA国际影视传媒檙e not as equipped as the firefighters,SA国际影视传媒� Betsina told Yellowknifer.

Betsina made an emergency call but the Yellowknife Fire Department decided to not respond to the fire, as four out of five of its staff that day were responding to two medical calls.

Coun. Julian Morse asked if the fire department's decision not to respond was because the department lacked capacity.

SA国际影视传媒淒o we have a capacity issue at the fire department where we're having to make the call not to fight the fires? Is that a call which you would consider normal in any municipality in this kind of situation, or was this a call that was made because of the situation in Yellowknife?SA国际影视传媒� said Morse.

Incidents like the fire off the shores of Ndilo do happen elsewhere, said Fredericks.

SA国际影视传媒淵ou're confident that we're staffed and have the human resources needs to operate effectively?SA国际影视传媒� said Morse.

SA国际影视传媒淵es, I feel that we are,SA国际影视传媒� said Fredericks.

SA国际影视传媒淲e're running a medical service and a fire service out of the same building but we could debate that we only have the staff to operate one of those,SA国际影视传媒� he said. SA国际影视传媒淲e take in what the call actually is and what the outcome would be if we responded, or didn't respond.SA国际影视传媒�

The time associated with bringing in additional personnel to respond to the station, retrieve gear, load vehicles and travel to Ndilo likely would have yielded the same result, said Fredericks.

SA国际影视传媒淭here was no danger to residents or additional property,SA国际影视传媒� stated a March 21 news release from the city.

Morse asked the fire chief if someone could SA国际影视传媒減ut themselves at risk trying to put the fire out themselves.SA国际影视传媒�

Deputy mayor Adrian Bell expressed similar concerns about whether the caller was told not to put the fire out themselves.

SA国际影视传媒淭he duty officer was in contact with the people. We determined from the conversation that we had the likelihood of us intervening and saving anything was probably nil because we would have had to do a call back. We do prioritize our calls as they come in, with the personnel that we have,SA国际影视传媒� said Fredericks.

The call to not respond was SA国际影视传媒渁ppropriateSA国际影视传媒� but should be followed up with clearer stipulations on what the city's fire department will and will not respond to, said Coun. Shauna Morgan.

SA国际影视传媒淭he standard of cover would communicate to the public what kinds of emergency response they can expect, what we can rescue people from and what we can't rescue people from,SA国际影视传媒� said Morgan.

SA国际影视传媒淲e have limited resources as any city does and certainly in my mind we would prioritize situations where there are injuries or potential injuries, there's entrapment, there's danger of the fire spreading to other property, houses and infrastructure in the city,SA国际影视传媒� she said.

-with files from Michael Hugall.