The fire chief and the deputy director of a Volunteer Fire Department of Nueva Scotia were removed from their positions after the death of a motocmaller that was beaten and killed by a fire truck last week.
The Municipality of the Cumberland Council voted on Wednesday to download to the fire chief Jerold Cotton and the attached boss Andrea Bishop and prohibits them for life of the Fire Station in the Collingwood Corner community, NS Cotton and Bishop are married.
“Once the evidence was last Monday on what had happened as to the fire truck that hit the victim, then it was time to act,” Mayor Rod Gilroy said to CBC News after the meeting of the Full on Wednesday.
The Council held a closed door meeting on Tuesday and then an emergency meeting on Wednesday after Blake Nicholson, 28, was killed on Friday night. He left a fiancee and a two -year -old son.
The Collingwood and District Volunteer Fire Department was called to help when Nicholson crashed its snow motorcycle near Lake Poison.
Greg Herrett, the municipality’s CAO, told Wednesday that Cotton was not sincere with officials about hitting Nicholson with the Fire Department. The RCMP concluded that Nicholson was beaten and killed by the fire truck.
In an email to CBC News on Wednesday night, Herrett confirmed that Cotton drove the truck at the time of the incident.
Herrett also said that Council Cotton responded to an emergency call on Monday, even though he said he would move away from his duties.
Friends and family of Nicholson questioned why it took so long when the Council retired Cotton, who previously declared himself guilty of driving with disabilities in 2020.
Herrett told CBC News that the municipality did not have the authority to eliminate individual chiefs or departments deputy directors before the promulgation of the statute that the municipality used on Wednesday.
“The only option that was available for the municipality to deal with a situation like this would be to dissolve the department. Pretty extreme option. And so with the promulgation of the statute, we could [discharge the volunteer fire chiefs] This time, “said Herrett.
Herrett said the statute, adopted in 2024, was in response to charges against cotton in 2020.
Herrett said that any information about Cotton’s condition on the scene with snow motorcycles will be that the RCMP determines. The RCMP told CBC News on Monday that they did not give Cotton a breathalyzer test.
CBC News has communicated with cotton through the Collingwood and District Fire Department, but has not received an answer.
