Centre Wellington’s fire stations in Fergus and Elora had what Fire Chief Brad Patton called “a typical year” to date.
Patton was at the township’s committee of the whole meeting on Dec. 5 to report on fire department activities.
He said the department’s $1.4 million budget is allocated in the following:
– 46%, volunteer firefighters wages;
– 29%, full time wages;
– 15%, fleet, administration, and building, and
– 10%, debt financing.
Patton called the township’s operations “one of the most cost efficient fire services in Ontario. This is mostly due to the fact we are one of the largest fire services in Ontario and still solely dependent on volunteer paid on-call firefighters.”
He noted that day time fire calls are the biggest challenge because most of the volunteers are at work during those hours.
Patton provided a chart that demonstrated the department’s efficiencies In 2009, it cost each person in the Centre Wellington $48.25 for fire services, and $50.55 in 2011. That is for 28,500 people.
In neighbouring Woolwich Township, with 21,300 people, those costs were $56.06 in 2009, and $73.01 in 2010. Woolwich has 128 volunteer firefighters, and Centre Wellington has 53.
Thorold, with a population of 19,800, paid $145.48 per person in 2009, and $150.03 in 2010.
Brockville, with 24,000 population, paid $200 per person in 2009, and $257.38 last year.
Patton noted the township created a fire master plan in 2002 and all eight of its goals have now been met.
He noted all firefighters do regular training, with Elora meeting on Monday nights, and Fergus on Wednesdays. He said that allows firefighters who miss one night of training to take it at the other station, and that seems to work well.
“Several times a year there is additional training on weekends and on other nights of the week,” Patton said in his reports.
“Firefighters are placed into duty crews. Each five or six member crew consists of one captain, a driver, a second driver and two to three firefighters with each station having a total of five duty crews. Each station’s duty crew is required to be on stand-by for alarms when not at their regular full time employment as well as test and maintain apparatus and equipment every fifth week,” the report said.
Patton said on average the paid on-call firefighters put in over 12,000 hours per year, or 290 hours per person per year.
He said last year, the Fergus station responded to 237 emergencies and the Elora station had 122, for a total of 359 emergencies.
“At the time of the report, the call volume will be similar to that of 2010,” he said.
The average response time from the time a firefighter’s pager is activated to having an emergency apparatus on the scene is 10 minutes, for 75% of the time, and Patton said the Ontario average for volunteer departments is 12.7 minutes, 75% of the time.
He concluded, “The implementation of a county fire training officer required a great deal of effort to bring it to reality. I am pleased at its success. Not only has training already improved across the county, but here in Centre Wellington also. The new position has reduced some of our operating costs by sharing resources.”
Public Safety officer Tom Mulvey said while the total number of fire inspections is down slightly this year, the township is still meeting requirements for request and complaint inspections. He also noted other areas such as completed fire safety plans have increased.
He noted there have been 16 station tours that included pre-schoolers to seniors. He visited two local schools and gave all classes from junior Kindergarten to grade 6 the opportunity to test their escape skills. He also attended seven other schools and distributed fire safety information.
Mulvey noted he has completed several fire safety courses and will write an exam for Fire Prevention in January.
He said many volunteer firefighters took the course on fire inspection of buildings, and he hopes to get started doing inspections as soon as possible into the new year.
Councillor Fred Morris pointed out the Fergus station had twice as many emergency calls as Elora, and wondered if there is a possibility of “burnout” at that station.
Patton said that is unlikely, and some stations he knows of are doing 600 calls a year.
Morris then asked if there is a possibility of “boredom” in the Elora station.
Patton said no, because the firefighters are still answering “a reasonable number” of calls. and some places do only 40 to 60 emergencies a year.
He said the dangers is all practice but no practical experience, but “That is certainly not an issue in Elora.”
Councillor Kirk McElwain noted the average response cost for such things as a rubbish, grass or brush fires is $454, and said, “It adds up.”
Patton said some of that cost is built into permit fees, and he warned if the person doing the burning did not obtain a permit, “We can charge” the cost to that person.
He added that calls to accidents for people from out of town are billed to the people involved. Council then accepted the reports.
Additional story on Page 14
