The Saint John Fire Department can reduce costs without needing to close more fire stations.
That was one of the findings in a long-awaited fire service review made public earlier this week.
It was in March 2021 that council awarded a $95,000 contract to Pomax Consulting Inc. to conduct the review.
Jon Hambides, a manager at the Ontario-based consulting firm, presented an overview to council’s public safety committee on Wednesday.
One of the top recommendations coming out of the review is a need for the fire department to shift to a fire prevention and education focus.
Hambides said while the department does an excellent job of responding to incidents, heightened efforts are required to reduce the need for those responses.
“Public education and prevention contributes to reducing fires or the severity of fires, and the involvement of suppression staff in public education and prevention activities contributes to reducing fires or the severity,” he said.
Hambides’ review found about 20 to 30 per cent of those incidents are considered emergencies, and 10 to 15 per cent are “potentially time sensitive or critical from a response time perspective.”
Between 2015 and 2022, firefighters in Saint John responded to between 45 and 68 structure fires per year.
That was in addition to 350 fires of other types, 3,000 medical incidents, 600 to 700 traffic collisions, over 600 automatic alarms, and several hundred events of other types.
One of his recommendations focuses on reassessing the types of vehicles that are dispatched to certain calls, such as medical incidents, alarm activations and motor vehicle collisions.
“The majority of incidents don’t require four firefighters and a heavy truck. An SUV and one or two firefighters are satisfactory,” said Hambides.
Hambides said research suggests that automatic alarms are “almost always false” and entrapment due to motor vehicle collisions is “rare.”
The report said the city should also consider terminating the 24-hour firefighter shift pattern at the end of the trial period, noting it has contributed to increased staffing costs, as well as administrative and operational challenges.
It also recommends disposing of Fire Station 8 in Millidgeville, which was closed in 2020. The report said there is “no evidence” that closing the station had led to an “unacceptable increased risk.”
Other recommendations included in the fire service review include:
- Work with the Public Safety Answering Point to improve the specificity of call-taking protocols to align resource response with incident circumstances
- Evaluate the equipment required to be carried on fire trucks
- Decommission the tanker trucks and three reserve vehicles
Hambides said the city should also consider terminating the 24-hour firefighter shift pattern at the end of the trial period, noting it has contributed to increased staffing costs, as well as administrative and operational challenges.
Common Council will now be asked to direct the city’s chief administrative officer to establish a team to complete the 15-year fire service strategy.
Follow
