Final answers in Fire Review

Times Contributor 

 

The long awaited Fire Review, from Fire Wise Consulting Ltd., commended all Wheatland County fire services for their good service and coverage of the County. The consultants were impressed with inter-department cooperation; however, they suggested many changes to the administrative structure, for better efficiency, liability protection and enhanced coverage and equipment use.

The draft report was presented in council on Oct. 15.

“We sincerely believe that the fire departments are doing a good job and where administrative changes are needed, Wheatland County has stepped up and offered to provide the processes for them to be achieved,” said Glen Saunders, Lead Consultant. 

“For the most part, the findings of this review confirm that we have a good fire service, but there are some things that we have to change,” said Reeve Glenn Koester.

The review was extensive and analysts visited each fire department, observed crews at work, interviewed department members, key staff, committee members, and members of the public. They consulted the fire commissioner’s office, businesses, municipal leaders and other emergency service providers. All the information was put together forming the recommendations of the report. They also developed status reports for each hall that were confidential and delivered to each chief, as to how the hall compared to standard practises in the province.

Some of the suggestions contained in the report were:

• Set up an oversight committee, made up of local residents, to lend public support for the fire departments.

• Separate the Carseland and Strathmore Rural halls, with Carseland renamed to West Wheatland Fire Services.  A capital asset plan should be set up quickly to purchase new upgrades, as the Carseland hall had been neglected in the past. Carseland would oversee service to areas south and west of the highway. It was suggested volunteers be recruited from local businesses that might be happy to allow workers to leave work, to respond to emergency callouts.

• It was recommended Strathmore Rural change their name to prevent confusion and relocate to another location, where public and volunteer support could be maintained. They recommended negotiations begin with the Town of Strathmore, to inquire whether the Strathmore Fire Department could take on response for some of the closer rural areas.

• Smaller two-bay, satellite halls could be established in smaller hamlets, equipped with bush buggies and a tanker, with oversight and mutual aid from a larger hall.  

• Develop new leadership in the Gleichen hall, with discussions about coordinating supporting service with the Siksika Nation.

• Hussar hall would remain under County direction

• Dalum Hall was working well, and consultants were impressed with the mutual aid agreements negotiated between the East County halls and adjacent counties.

The consultants addressed the liability and safety issues. Emergency First Responder Teams (ERFT) are not covered for patient liability, and consultants stated patient care is the responsibility of Alberta Health Services. When the province completes the 911 and ERFT review, the County will have more direction on changes required. Until then, the consultants referred them to the Red Document, put out by the Fire Chief Association of Alberta. Saunders was firm on ensuring that firefighter safety was given a top priority. They said WCB and Occupational Health and Safety regulations needed to be in place, with regular observation and inspections for safety problems. It was emphasized the inspections would not be to determine job capabilities.

They recommended all paperwork and reporting duties be taken over by volunteer clerks falling under a central administrative department, so that Fire Chiefs can concentrate on their halls, men and emergency calls. They recommended computer hardware and software programs for records management. A set of bylaws and policy guidelines were to be developed, so there were clear directives for the fire chiefs to follow, instead of leaving decisions to the acting chief’s discretion.

Consultants felt that more training was needed, and there needed to be a centralized, standardized training set up under a dedicated, experienced Fire Service Coordinator. All volunteers would have nine basic skills to rely on when answering calls. All fire departments would have access to opportunities. Saunders said it was an integral part of volunteer recruitment and retention incentives. There needed to be better recruitment efforts made, and  he suggested recruiting young volunteers. Rockyford Mayor Darcy Burke added that with good organization and good leadership, volunteers will sign up.

Saunders said there were significant communication breakdowns between levels of governance and with the public. He felt community support was crucial and all levels of communication could be improved along with administrative changes.

Saunders said that a fundamental change in the administrative structure will be the greatest challenge for the County. A single administration with all the halls falling under it would improve efficiency. He said there were too many levels of accountability, which was inefficient.  In the next step of this process, Fire Wise is developing an implementation model that can be used and will be consulting with the County and fire departments to help get it operational.

Wheatland Council accepted the review, disbanded the Fire Review Committee, and committed to the development of an implementation plan. The full final report will be posted on the Wheatland website.