Vancouver population growth leads to greater need for fire department resources, officials say
Vancouver Fireplace Division officers are calling for an extra $ 12.7 million a yr for brand new workers and gear to assist them meet their purpose of answering calls promptly.
The funding request, introduced to the Vancouver metropolis council on Monday, would add a brand new hand truck and three paramedic squads, in addition to upgrading services, staffing and rising assist.
Metropolis Supervisor Eric Holmes launched funding choices, together with utilizing property tax income or contemplating sharing prices with the Clark County Fireplace District 5, which has already signed a hearth and rescue contract with the town. Moreover, the town council would possibly take into account introducing a hearth hammer charge that might cowl among the value of capital.
Metropolis councils confirmed their assist for the proposal however stated they wish to see the attainable influence and future implementation labored out.
Fireplace chief Brennan Blue stated Vancouver’s speedy progress is placing stress on emergency groups. The variety of inhabitants within the space the place the fireplace service is deployed has grown by round 22 p.c within the final 10 years – and that is additionally mirrored within the variety of calls made by the fireplace service.
“It takes a serious incident inside our jurisdiction that places us in a state of affairs the place now we have few assets. We do not have sufficient assets to fulfill our present service ranges, ”he stated.
The fireplace brigade has 10 stations, of which station 11 is beneath development. It serves 89 sq. miles, residence to 288,000 individuals, and rising inhabitants density has put stress on the fireplace division system, he stated. This speedy progress and congestion are the primary components contributing to slower precedence calls and full alarm hearth responses.
Firefighters at the moment reply to round 87 p.c of precedence calls in lower than eight minutes – 5 p.c under the usual of service adopted by the town. The division’s responses to fireside alarms are additionally under commonplace.
If the proposal is accredited, the extra paramedic squads could be assigned to stations 2 (Worldwide District), 5 (Walnut Grove) and 9 (Fisher’s Touchdown). The cart could be stationed at Station 8 (Cascade Park), which might require a modification to accommodate the big car. There are additionally extra coaching, administration and logistics workers within the hearth stations.
Blue stated these assets would vastly enhance the parallelism of calls, or when a unit is deployed to an space the place an incident is already going down, by permitting versatile name response. This can be a widespread drawback in eight hearth division station areas and a serious contributor to useful resource stress, he stated.
“Folks (within the hearth division) are harassed and work very laborious,” stated Blue. “I feel now we have to spend money on our hearth brigade to be ready for the longer term.”
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