Sudbury firefighter tested positive for COVID-19 after Garson bonfire party in July

The union for volunteer firefighters in Greater Sudbury says one of its members contracted COVID-19 after responding to a bonfire in Garson in late July.

That was around the time that the number of coronavirus cases in Sudbury shot up to 22 in just a few days.

It's been widely rumoured since then that the party in Garson was the source of at least some of those COVID cases.

Greater Sudbury's deputy fire chief Jesse Oshell says public health officials made the department aware of possible COVID exposure from people at that party. 

He says about 10 volunteer firefighters from Garson who responded to that burning complaint had to be tested for COVID and were isolated for 14 days.

But he refused to say if any of them tested positive for the virus.     

"Well, in this case, it's more like specifically narrowing out an individual perhaps. And so, I'm not at liberty to discuss any one individual," said Oshell.

The union for Greater Sudbury's some 200 volunteer firefighters confirmed that one of those Garson members did test positive for COVID-19.

CLAC staff representative Matt Walchuk says the union believes the proper safety protocols for firefighters were followed on that call and remain in place today. 

"I mean the work is always dangerous, this certainly adds a new element to it," says Walchuk. 

"We've made sure along with the employer to ensure they can perform the work they need to perform using every safety precaution available to them."

Oshell says that during those two weeks of isolation, volunteer and full-time firefighters from elsewhere in the city helped cover off fire calls for the Garson area.

He says all the affected firefighters are now back on the job.

Asked if the public had the right to know more about the Garson incident and the possible COVID exposure to city firefighters, Oshell acknowledged that there was "lots of speculation out there" but that the city followed the advice of the Sudbury public health unit.  

"We in the fire service, working with public health to do what they recommended and what was best to protect our employees, our firefighters," he says. 

"If they were able to release more public information, I'm sure they would have."

Sudbury's medical officer of health Dr. Penny Sutcliffe says there is a "balancing act" with informing the public about the pandemic while making sure to "protect privacy and trust."

"If there was a need for the public to know... public health would have released information," she says.

Sutcliffe says the health unit is now not releasing any information about the age of people who contract COVID-19 to protect their privacy, but will release more specific details when there are "implications for the public" such as in a recent case reported at a restaurant in Warren.