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Port Moody fire department’s report informs strategy for growth

Port Moody firefighters won’t be doing much of their 4,700 hours of training at 2 p.m. on Monday afternoons in July.
Port Moody fire department
Port Moody firefighters train in the removal of a fallen colleague through confined spaces using a 150-pound dummy with full firefighter gear strapped to it.

Port Moody firefighters won’t be doing much of their 4,700 hours of training at 2 p.m. on Monday afternoons in July. 

That’s because those are the most common times and days for calls for service — and the department’s busiest month — according to Port Moody Fire-Rescue’s 2017 community report, which was to be presented Tuesday to city council at a special meeting of the committee of the whole held at the Glenayre community centre.

Fire Chief Ron Coulson said the report, the first stand-alone document of its kind produced by the department, is a snapshot to show Port Moody residents what they’re getting for the $425 paid by the average household in the city every year to support their service.

“We’re hoping to educate the community,” Coulson told The Tri-City News. “Emergency services are an insurance policy and it’s nice for people to know what they’re getting.”

The department also learned a lot about itself in the study, Coulson said, and that knowledge will go a long way to inform its strategic planning for future equipment and staffing needs as well as training.

“There’s always room for improvement,” he said, especially as the city seems poised for an extended period of growth and increasing urbanization with the advent of more development, particularly highrises.

Coulson said the department’s 44 career staff, 20 volunteers and three chief officers have to be ready to adapt as the city changes. That means more training specific to highrises and adapting their procedures for attending calls in buildings that tower high above the department’s tallest aerial ladders, like working with lighter air packs, managing evacuations down stairwells, using high-powered fans to pressurize those stairwells to help keep them free of smoke.

“We have to be cognizant of how growth will affect us,” Coulson said.

Last year, according to data compiled by E-Comm, the dispatcher for most emergency services in Metro Vancouver, the Port Moody fire department responded to 1,455 incidents, of which 281 were fire calls; that’s down slightly from 1,517 incidents in 2016.

The most frequent call-outs were for medical emergencies (837), responding to alarms (361), motor vehicle incidents (187), general assistance (100) and gas problems (87).

The department also conducted 1,120 fire inspections and more than 57 public education events like visits to the fire fall and school tours.

The department’s operating budget last year was $7,664,000.

mbartel@tricitynews.com