Cochrane Fire Department’s resources are beginning to be stretched to the limit as the town population continues to swell, and it’s becoming more apparent.
Total calls from 2015 to 2016, according to the latest statistics, showed an increase of 10.8 per cent. In response, the Town of Cochrane may be hiring four full-time firefighters in the coming year, at a cost of roughly $100,000 each.
In recent weeks, the number of concurrent calls spiked from its usual amount and on Sunday the call volume more than doubled for an average day and all occurred within a short time-span.
“This Sunday, we had eight calls back to back over about a five-hour period,” said Fire Chief David Humphrey.
While the department was able to respond to all the calls, Humphrey said it wasn’t as efficient as it could have been.
“We deal with one call at a time. And by priority,” Humphrey said. “We evaluate what the call is and we ring a second alarm and have another group of people come into the station and go to the call.”
This means the calls couldn’t be handled by the on-duty platoon alone – all other firefighters not working were paged to assemble at the fire station to provide assistance.
The fire department is made up of four platoons comprised of five firefighters and at any given time there is one platoon on duty.
When a call is made, all five firefighters respond.
If the department adds four new full-time firefighter positions, each of the four rotating platoons will be given one more member, bolstering the platoon to six members.
The new model will allow the department greater flexibility in which type of trucks are sent to each type of call and allow for the option to split the team when calls are concurrent, reducing the need to ring the second alarm and bring in off-duty firefighters.
“What that will do is give us the opportunity to better deploy people and trucks.
“We’ll be able to have two units available: one with a four person crew and one with a two person crew and handle a lot larger amount of our calls in an efficient manner,” Humphrey said.
Approximately 33 per cent of the calls the fire department receives are medical-related – the department acts as a back up assistance for Alberta Health Services. Eighteen per cent of calls are from vehicle accidents, 10 per cent are catalogue alarms, seven per cent are complaint investigations, 4.5 per cent for carbon monoxide alarms and 4.3 per cent for dollar loss fires.
“A lot of our what I call ‘routine’ calls can easily be handled with the two pieces of equipment,” Humphrey said referring to the two trucks.
There were 938 total calls in 2016 and the average calls per day were between two and four. In 2015 there were 846 calls.
“I operate the department on statistical values. I keep fairly close tabs on what goes on as far as how many calls we do, what our timings are inside the community, what the different types of calls are that we handle,” Humphrey said. “It’s our role in the community to keep up.”
Gerry Murphy, senior manager of parks and public spaces, said the $100,000 per firefighter is an all-encompassing figure, which includes wages, benefits, pension, statutory deductions and more.
“By the end of the first year, the base salary is approximately $80,000 for a first-year firefighter,” Murphy said.
“As in any profession, there is a scale based on your class. It’s not strictly based on years of service,” he said.
Murphy also noted the importance of maintaining the 24/7 model with the fire department.
“Unfortunately, when there are events, especially fire events, there’s no schedule for when they happen and we have to be prepared at any given time to respond.”
