Fire chiefs banned from fire hall for life after snowmobiler hit and killed

The fire chief and deputy chief of a Nova Scotia volunteer fire department have been removed from their positions following the death of a snowmobiler who was struck and killed by a fire truck last week.

The Municipality of Cumberland council voted Wednesday to discharge fire chief Jerrold Cotton and deputy chief Andrea Bishop and ban them for life from the fire station in the community of Collingwood Corner, N.S. Cotton and Bishop are married.

"Once the hard evidence came out on Monday about what had happened as far as the fire truck striking the victim, then it was time for us to act," Mayor Rod Gilroy told CBC News after the packed meeting on Wednesday.

Council held a closed-door meeting Tuesday and then an emergency meeting Wednesday after Blake Nicholson, 28, was killed on Friday night. He left behind a fiancée and a two-year-old son.

The Collingwood and District Volunteer Fire Department was called to help when Nicholson crashed his snowmobile near Poison Lake.

Greg Herrett, the municipality's CAO, told council on Wednesday that Cotton wasn't truthful with officials about hitting Nicholson with the fire truck. The RCMP concluded that Nicholson was struck and killed by the fire truck.  

In an email to CBC News late Wednesday, Herrett confirmed Cotton was driving the truck at the time of the incident.

Herrett also told council Cotton responded to an emergency call on Monday, despite publicly saying he would step away from his duties.

Friends and family of Nicholson questioned why it took so long for council to remove Cotton, who previously pleaded guilty to impaired driving in 2020.

Herrett told CBC News the municipality did not have the authority to remove individual chiefs or deputy chiefs of departments prior to the enactment of the bylaw the municipality used on Wednesday.

"The only option that was available to the municipality to deal with a situation like this would be to disband the department. Pretty extreme option. And so with the enactment of the bylaw, we were able to [discharge the volunteer fire chiefs] this time around," Herrett said.

Herrett said the bylaw, adopted in 2024, was in response to the charges laid against Cotton in 2020.

Herrett said any information on Cotton's condition at the scene with the snowmobiler will be for the RCMP to determine. The RCMP told CBC News on Monday that they did not give Cotton a breathalyzer test.

CBC News has reached out to Cotton through the Collingwood and District Fire Department but has not received a reply.