New fire regulations may come with high costs says Erin Fire Chief Dan Callaghan.
In his annual report to council, given on May 21, Callaghan said estimated fire damage was $1.725 million, comprised of 401 calls and 61 fires [comprised of structural and vehcile fires].
Callaghan said the department used 100.7 per cent of its allocated operating budget.
The 401 calls were divided among medical, motor vehicle collisions, other emergency calls, and fire calls.
“Erin Station 10 was obviously busier.”
He noted the Hillsburgh fire station calls are mixed in with calls responding to events in its portion of the East Garafraxa coverage area.
Each firefighter was set up to receive 168 hours of training per firefighter per year.
“Not every firefighter did 168 hours of training.”
Callaghan noted Erin has a deal with other Wellington County fire departments to share materials – training materials, educational materials – to help reduce the costs for individual fire departments.
Councillor John Brennan noted that there are mandates in terms of training and standards which must be met.
“Are we meeting [those standards] comfortably or are we just meeting them?”
Callaghan said the government sets training standards, but is in the midst of changing the standards.
He explained the Ontario Fire Marshal is combining with Emergency Measure Ontario this year.
“They are also changing the way we do training in Ontario.”
In the past, the Fire Marshal set down training criteria.
Now, it is shifting to North America-wide training standards.
That, he said, will be phased in over the next few years.
“The big challenge is to keep our people up to date. We have no way of forcing them to attend training.”
However, Callaghan added “if we find [firefighters] are deficient, we may pull them off the truck we can’t take the risk that something may happen if they haven’t recieved a certain amount of training.”
Brennan asked if the new standards will be similar to existing standards.
“They will be more rigorous,” Callaghan said.
He said the new standards will also apply to equipment and trucks.
“It involves money when we start complying with NFPA [National Fire Protection Association] standards.”
Callaghan said if the Ministry of Labour is investigating an accident and sees the fire department is not using NFPA standards, “we will be asked why.”
Callaghan said that though the department has dealt with some major fires, almost all happened when no one was at home.
“The smoke detectors worked, but they were not hooked up to alarm companies. Therefore, it was only after the fire had broken through the exterior of the house, that a passerby saw the fire and notified the fire department.”
Callaghan said by that time “the fire is well advanced and created a lot of damage.”
He said there was only one major fire where the people were at home, and it was an arson case.
As to the number of medical responses, Callaghan said that with the ambulance coming to Hillsburgh in the new fire hall, the amount of fire department responses to those calls will depend on the amount of time the ambulance is actually stationed at Hillsburgh.
“But hopefully it reduce the number of medical calls the fire truck responds to.”
