North Wellington fire departments crossing municipal borders to respond faster

NORTH WELLINGTON – How firefighters in Mapleton, Minto and Wellington North are dispatched to emergencies has changed with a new three-way agreement.

Instead of paging fire stations in the same municipality as an emergency, calls will go to whichever station can arrive the soonest.

“This is the best thing we can do for the residents of our three municipalities to make sure that we are getting people on the scene quicker and more efficiently,” fire chief Chris Harrow said during an Aug. 11 Mapleton council meeting.

“It will improve response times for all residents of the communities, and it just makes sense, quite frankly,” he said when speaking to Minto council earlier the same day. 

It’s known as a “Borderless Response Agreement,” and all three municipalities have signed on.

For now, the agreement doesn’t involve financial compensation between the municipalities, with the goal each will benefit equally.

But Harrow said response data will be regularly monitored, and compensation can be later discussed if a municipality is carrying a heavier load.

The agreement’s impact will be most noticeable when there’s a two-station response, Harrow said.

“The net benefit is seeing two stations be able to get on scene a lot quicker.”

The chief expects Mount Forest and Teviotdale will see better response times.

Some Minto Fire stations can provide better coverage of Mount Forest than Wellington North Fire Services can. And in Teviotdale, Mapleton Fire Rescue has closer stations than Minto Fire does.

The three fire departments have been working under a partnership agreement, called the Tri Fire Services, for more than two years, and “have worked hard to standardize many aspects of the operational side and work together on a more consistent basis,” Harrow told Minto council.

Currently, the three departments operate within their municipal boundaries with current response zones. If a department is required to travel outside the boundary, it is classified as mutual aid. 

“This agreement would go over top of the mutual aid agreements that we have,” Harrow told Mapleton council.

Drive-time analysis will factor road networks, speed limits, traffic concerns and turnout times to determine the closest response.

Emergency response zones will be digitally mapped through the dispatch centre, with the six closest fire stations ranked in order based on drive times and factors such as speed limits and road restrictions. If additional stations are needed at an incident, dispatchers will already know which stations should respond next.

The agreement will run for three years, with data presented annually to each council. 

A clause in the agreement would handle a council opting out before three years, Harrow noted.

Minto councillor Ron Elliot commended Harrow for the idea of a borderless agreement, but noted that dispatch can sometimes make mistakes and call out the wrong department. He asked if departments would still respond to a call and continue until they are called off.

The fire chief responded, “There’s still going to be mistakes made with cell phone callers. Cell phone callers don’t always know where they are, so that’s when we get those problems.”

He added that the new system would be able to locate cell phones and more accurately pinpoint where an incident is occurring.

“With humans involved, there’s always going to be error. So the protocol will always be: if you get called, you keep going until you get called off because no matter what, we want to get somebody there,” said Harrow.

Wellington North councillor Sherry Burke asked if officials had considered how the change could impact firefighter burnout should a station experience high call volume.

“We definitely consider that all the time,” Harrow said.

“We are hoping that this will actually help ... we are not sending firefighters long distances to calls ... for example it won’t cause Arthur to come all the way down to Mount Forest all the time because we have Harriston closer.”

Mapleton councillor Michael Martin also expressed support: “I love this report. I’m glad the chief has brought forward his previous experience as a paramedic into the seamless coverage.”

The province currently dispatches whatever ambulance is closest to an emergency, regardless of what municipality employs the crew.

“I think it’s wonderful ... I hope other municipalities follow this example of seamless coverage,” Martin added.

Wellington North councillor Steve McCabe said he likes  how “as the tri-township fire services evolve, we are finding ways to streamline the whole team, including this agreement, where the closest firehouse responds, cutting down your response time and hopefully ... saving people’s lives.”

Mapleton Mayor Gregg Davidson said: “It’s very progressive that we have this Tri Fire Service and this is another piece of the progression to make it seamless that we are responding together at calls regardless of the border. That’s what the idea of the Tri Fire was, that we were going to work together – in not only equipment and training, but also in response,” Davidson said.

Minto deputy Mayor Jean Anderson gave a “heartfelt thank you” to Harrow and all firefighters as they have “had quite the summer – some dreadful accidents and the straw fires and so forth.”

She added, “I kept thinking about your workers and the local communities, businesses that allow them time off to attend to that and the service they provide.

"So thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for everything they do.”