Yorkton Fire Chief takes to social ‘put your phone down’

A Saskatchewan Fire Chief is pleading with the public to stop taking pictures of accidents.

Yorkton’s Fire Chief Trevor Morrissey recently posted on the Yorkton fire Protective Services Facebook account about the growing issue of people interfering with first responders. People are doing this by taking pictures and videos of accidents and then putting them on social media.

In his post, he referenced a recent incident that involved two vehicles on Broadway St West in Yorkton.”It is very disheartening for us as responders to have people taking photos when people are at their most vulnerable,” said Morrisey.

In the post, Morrissey says while responding to a major incident, a man walked through the barricades to get a video of the accident. When Morrissey confronted the man and told him to leave, the man refused. “When told to leave, (he) told me that it’s a free country, and when (he) asked for my name to which I replied Trevor Morrissey, Fire Chief for the City of Yorkton, (he) said ‘You work for me buddy!’”

The fire chiefs message was clear. “I do not work for you, I work for me, my family, and at that very point in time I was working for four families who were going through life changing events,” wrote Morrissey. “we were entrusted to keep their privacy and maintain an area free of disruption for examination.”

He said that unfortunately, incidents like this do happen and that crews will try to prevent them.
“We barricade as best we can; we block with our vehicles; we do everything we can,” said Morrissey.

He adds that he understands that it’s human nature to be curious but urges the public to stay away from active emergency scenes for the safety of themselves and crews on the ground.

Morrissey said that his post has garnered much more attention than he had expected and that the majority of the responses to it have been very positive.

“I did receive a lot of positive feedback from even all the way in New York. I didn’t realize how far it would reach, but you know, it was all across the country, and I do appreciate that, so at the end of the day, I guess this Facebook thing works. I just think if everybody really does get the message, then it’s just a little step to get a little bit better than it did what I wanted it to do,” said Morrissey.

The post has garnered more than three thousand shares in the four days it’s been up.