Rosemere firefighters who were suddenly fired held a demonstration Tuesday outside their former fire station.
They gathered in front of their former fire hall, holding two grave markers with the names and dates of service of each of the people who worked there.
The town closed its fire department on Monday and transferred service to neighbouring Blainville, letting go 38 firefighters and three managers.
Some of them were able to get their personal effects out of the building before the locks were changed -- although one firefighter who just received a medal for 20 years of service was not able to take it home.
Corey Lemm is one of the people who is shocked and outraged.
"A childhood dream. When I was 7-years-old following my father around on my bicycle when he was getting called out. It's just been a long dream come true for the last 20 years and like I said for it to come to an end in a five-minute meeting is beyond explanation," he said.
The mayor of Rosemere says service will be improved since Blainville's fire department operates 24/7, while Rosemere's fire department was only operational part-time. That meant for part of each day and night the majority of firefighters were on-call, and so would have to come to the firehall and gather equipment before going to a fire.
The Quebec’s firefighter's union called the move irresponsible.
Blainville's fire department is located one kilometre away from Rosemere. The first call for the Blainville fire crews since they took over came in Tuesday and the fire chief says response time was well within the norms.
That town has issued a statement indicating that it will increase service and likely hire more staff and buy more equipment, but did not say if preference would be given to those recently let go by the neighbouring municipality
