Fire prevention week in Swift Current is well underway and one of the main masterminds behind it is starting to settle into his position.

Dean Diguer was hired by the Swift Current Fire Department as its Deputy Chief of Prevention back in February, filling the vacancy left behind by Pete L'Heureux who retired in December of 2022.

A return to Swift Current for a third time was very appealing to Diguer as his family moved to the city when he was three and grew up here.

"It's nice to be home," he remarked. "I've been really enjoying it."

Prior to re-joining the Swift Current Fire Department for his second stint, he spent the last eight-plus years working for the Government of the Northwest Territories as their assistant fire marshal. There he managed 33 communities.

"It was a lot of travel, which was not a bad thing, got to see a lot of the landscape up there but certainly made for a hectic job," he recalled.

Spending more time on the public education and awareness side is the biggest difference between his new gig and his past job in the Northwest Territories. He believes the more time allotted to that, the better the results.

"It's been shown across the country where a really robust public education program can be directly related to lower number of fires," he said. 

Fire crews visiting local schools this week possibly won't have Diguer with them, but he will have spent time arranging and preparing the team to teach the next generation about the importance of fire safety.

"Kitchen safety is this year's theme, and it is the number one cause of house fires in North America about 49 per cent of them," he said. "We've had a number of those ourselves this year, fortunately, none were bad. If we can reduce the number of those it will be a successful campaign."

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