When the province cut ties with the Nova Scotia Firefighters School, Jessica Gillis had mixed feelings.

She and her family have been advocating for years for better conditions at the school since her brother, Skyler Blackie, died after a faulty fire extinguisher blew up in his face at the school in 2019.

The government also released a report about the school on Tuesday, and she feels some relief that the government can see what they have known all along: the fire school is unsafe, and there is a serious lack of leadership from Executive Director John Cunningham.

“This is the next right step to make sure that firefighters in the province are trained safely. And that’s a really encouraging feeling,” said Gillis.

But on the other hand, she said it is disheartening for the instructors at the school, and their families, when some of those instructors were trying to make improvements.

“We feel badly that this has upended their lives and they’re in the middle of this. But this responsibility does lay squarely on the shoulders of Executive Director John Cunningham. He has not taken the actions to run this school safely, and this is where we’re at today because of that,” she said.

The province released a report, called a value-for-money audit, that looked at how the school was operating, on Tuesday. Along with the report, they announced they were cutting ties with the school, and they would soon create an interim training model.

Advocacy not done

Gillis wants the province to standardize firefighter training across the board through legislation and that a school like NSCC would take on the training, which is what happens in New Brunswick. In P.E.I., Holland College offers professional firefighting training.

The fire service will continue to grow and change, and Gillis said that she and her family will make sure they are a loud voice advocating for firefighters in Skyler’s name for many years to come.

One of the most important things she wants people to do is read the report released earlier this week.

It can be easy for people to look at a family like hers and assume they are going after an organization because of what happened, she said, but this is not the case.

“I stand very firm that, had the school and John Cunningham come to our family and asked us to fight with them for sincere change, and [if] they had wanted to do that, we would have. But read this report, and it is going to show that there is no accountability, a lack of governance.”

Some board members at the school found out about Blackie’s death on the news because there was no safety accountability in place, no meetings after the fact, she said.

“Read the report, because it’s going to be very eye opening that this isn’t just about grief and one person losing their life there. This is the broader picture, that we’re at risk of losing another life or more lives, if John Cunningham continues to lead that school.”