(Nicole Reis/meadowlakeNOW Staff)

By Nicole Reis

FIRE DEPARTMENT REPORT

Meadow Lake Fire Department delivers positive report to city council

Apr 16, 2020 | 12:42 PM

Meadow Lake Fire Department presented their 2019 report to council this week, and the data appears to be positive for the area.

Fire Chief Neil Marsh told meadowlakeNOW calls for vehicle accidents last year are down by more than half the 10 year average.

“Every year is so different and as a whole, we got a mix of calls somewhere in the area of 140 calls last year and for whatever reason car crashes are down, which is great for everybody,” he said.

Meadow Lake RCMP Traffic Services was contacted to get a better understanding of this statistic, however officers did not respond.

In the report, Marsh noted a doubling of false alarm calls which could be attributed to smoke or heat sensors, carbon monoxide alarms or home and commercial security system false alarms.

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“We always respond to every call because there’s a slight chance it might be an actual emergency,” he said.

The fire chief was unable to determine a firm cost to the city false alarms impose, however six to eight fire crew responders are dispatched to a scene and each crew member is paid an average of $20 each per hour. Crews are often pulled away from their families at early hours of the night to attend such calls and most crew have employment obligations the following day.

According to the report, the labour requirement of various types of incidents provides a different perspective. Structure fires, vehicle extrication, industrial fires and grass/brush fires are among the most labour-intensive types of calls.

“The May long weekend, we had two fairly large grass fires in the farmlands at the same time,” Marsh said. ”Between us and the R.M. fire crew, we were very stretched and we had wildfire management crews coming in with water bombers and other help.”

He added those were expensive fires and kept fire crews busy for days. The June tornado event at the Murray Doell Campground was a further test of the Meadow Lake fire department abilities.

In the first phases of 2019, the junior firefighter program was launched which introduced several high school students to the world of emergency services. Marsh said he is looking forward to getting this program restarted once the pandemic subsides.

“We also hope to make an annual event of our regional training weekend,” Marsh said. “Of course, when it is safe to do so.”

Plans for 2020

Marsh said additional firefighter training, ice rescue, confined space, Fire Officer 1, round 2 of the Regional Training Weekend are planned for the remainder of the year.

Further Emergency Management staff and volunteer training will be through specialized online courses and exercises. The community disaster planning and preparedness program is now handled by the city’s Community Safety Officer though the Fire Department will continue to be involved.

The fire department also is expecting a new Self Contained Breathing Apparatus in the coming weeks.

Fire crews plan to work further on fire prevention and preparedness including continued fire inspections, pre-incident planning, and implementing the new Fire Safety and Fire Response Bylaw which can be found here.

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nicole.reis@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @nicolereis7722