By Cheryl Jahn

Push renewed for training centre

Aug 31, 2022 | 2:34 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Fire Hall #1 on Massey Drive is the hall to respond to incidents in the BCR Industrial Site on the south side of town. Ideally, the Fire Underwriters have an expectation of a response within five minutes of a call. But it takes crews from Hall #1 eight minutes to reach the industrial site.

“The Fire Underwriters, they do work for the insurance industry to determine how the city can respond. Their concern was our delay or the slower response in getting to the BCR,” explains Fire Chief Cliff Warner. “Their recommendation, given that the frequency is low but the consequences are high, would be to have a fire hall in the future in that area.”

But the Fire Department is also looking at a training centre in the City and, ideally, the two would be combined. Council will look at a budget request next early year to do a more detailed plan for such a centre.

“I think the big thing now is not only partnership opportunities but looking at a multi-agency training centre,” says Adam Davey, the Director for Public Safety at the City. “Where we’re able to increase that inter-operability between not only Fire Rescue but, perhaps, opportunities with regional fire departments to come and train. We’re looking at opportunities with the Airport Authority, with First Nation Emergency Support Services, the Justice Institute of BC and many others.”

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But given the industrial nature of the area and the proximity to railways makes the BCR Site a perfect location. And there are changes coming to the training expectations from the Office of the Fire Commission which reinforce the need for such a facility.

“They basically have a playbook. They identify the different types of service provided,” says Warner. “Whether it’s a volunteer department, a composite department, a career department, whether they fight fires inside or stay outside. All of those are laid out and there are parameters to show what training is required to maintain compliance.”

The third element on the wish list is staffing levels, which haven’t changed in decades, despite calls for service going from 7 per day to 21 per day.

“There is an expectation through our NFPA standards that we have a certain number of firefighters on scene by a certain amount of time in order to properly affect a structure fire. We’re not meeting that in all aspects. So to increase the staffing will allow that to happen.”

The Fire Department currently has a complement of 10 firefighters, with 129.5 plus staff in total.