Vernon Fire Department 2 man crews?

[my5cents]

Fire departments like to instill the fear of death into the public. If you look at it statistically, in a house fire it's all about self preservation .... Fire departments are renowned for this. If u were break down responses fire departments do ... The majority of their call volume are medical calls. For the few minutes it takes ... Volunteers are totally a good way to save the taxpayers money

I guess the first question is, What is your definition of "Fire Departments" ?

Mine is : Fire Department : The management chain and members of an organization whose task is to fight fires and related duties.

I don't hear the "Fire Department" of Vernon, instilling the fear of death into the public. In fact we (the public) were alerted to a concern by a news item prompted by a citizen's video, of a fire scene that is disturbing.

We heard from the President of the Vernon Professional Fire Fighters Association (VPFFA), the Vernon Fire Chief, and the Deputy Mayor of Vernon.

The VPFFA stated the desired compliment a fire truck should have and the criteria (number of firefighters) required before entering a burning building.

The Fire Chief re-counted the fact that there are budgetary shortfalls.

The Deputy Mayor, without saying it, maintained nothing was wrong (since) she hadn't received any complaints.

The people who have a "horse in this race" are the line firefighters and the public who are both, as groups, being put at risk.

We've heard a little from the public, mostly shock and dismay of the actions of recruiting bystanders at the scene of a fire and absolutely nothing from the firefighters.

So, where's this "fear of death" talk ?

[bob vernon]

Many years ago, the managers of the offices fighting forest fires used to send the RCMP into town to the bar and tell all the patrons that they were going out to a fire camp and they were fire fighters. Zero training, zero equipment.

Anybody who gets involved with fighting a fire, whether a house fire or a forest fire, is in a potentially dangerous place. As soon as somebody is injured, sues the city for a lifetime of lost income, this practice will end again. It ended for fighting forest fires years ago. When the chief told a bystander to help him, he was assuming responsibility for that person's safety. At that moment the city was on the hook. I'd bet that the city's liability insurer has clauses in the contract that puts all the liability on the city for this kind of thing. And as a bystander, when the chief asked for help, the bystander doesn't know if a life inside the burning building is at risk. What a position to put the public in. It's just wrong for so many reasons.

[Smurf]

Firefighting is extremely dangerous and the last thing you want to do is become a victim yourself. You never enter a fire without proper backup. Under proper supervision you could use public to lay out hoses etc. but I would never want to see them actually involved in fighting fire. I have to agree that the city would probably be 100% responsible if someone was hurt. Insurance companies are not known for giving away their money.

[XT225]

Many years ago, the managers of the offices fighting forest fires used to send the RCMP into town to the bar and tell all the patrons that they were going out to a fire camp and they were fire fighters. Zero training, zero equipment.

Anybody who gets involved with fighting a fire, whether a house fire or a forest fire, is in a potentially dangerous place. As soon as somebody is injured, sues the city for a lifetime of lost income, this practice will end again. It ended for fighting forest fires years ago. When the chief told a bystander to help him, he was assuming responsibility for that person's safety. At that moment the city was on the hook. I'd bet that the city's liability insurer has clauses in the contract that puts all the liability on the city for this kind of thing. And as a bystander, when the chief asked for help, the bystander doesn't know if a life inside the burning building is at risk. What a position to put the public in. It's just wrong for so many reasons.

If you look more carefully at the story, you will see that it was NOT the chief who asked a bystander to assist them, it was the Captain; quite a difference. The chief wasn't even there. If he had of been, he would have helped if needed, as I'm pretty certain that he is fully trained. The public is not.

A Vernon fire captain shouts to a by-stander, “Hey you! Give him a hand”.

Green says his crews make him proud, even when they have to ask for public help.

“I watched the video,” says Green. “They did the best they could with the resources they had and very proud of our guys, they work hard and train hard and sometimes we lose those battles, in particular incidences but we save equally more.”

[wanderingman]

wow getting rid of the Ok landing fire department is looking better already (haha)

[Smurf]

Be interesting to know what there response time far out in Okanagan Landing with enough men to properly fight a fire would be. It sounds like the landing probably lost in that deal. In fact Vernon probably lost too as now they don't have that department to help them out in difficult situations.

[ventured]

Be interesting to know what there response time far out in Okanagan Landing with enough men to properly fight a fire would be. It sounds like the landing probably lost in that deal. In fact Vernon probably lost too as now they don't have that department to help them out in difficult situations.

REsponse time should be no different, as the fire hall location is the same. It's just under different command structure than before.

[wanderingman]

Smurf wrote:
Be interesting to know what there response time far out in Okanagan Landing with enough men to properly fight a fire would be. It sounds like the landing probably lost in that deal. In fact Vernon probably lost too as now they don't have that department to help them out in difficult situations.

REsponse time should be no different, as the fire hall location is th[ same. It's just under different command structure than before.

I never knew the OK landing FD location is still operational??

[jasond_71]

The Okanagan Landing firehall is now run by the Vernon Fire Department. Response times should be better but the taxes for Okanagan Landing residents went up because now they have to pay for professional fire fighters at over $100,000 a fire fighter. This is probably the main reason Coldstream doesn't want to join Vernon because taxes would go up a lot to pay for fire fighters rather than volunteers. There obviously is pressure on the Fire Chief to cut costs because paid fire fighters are very expensive.

Whether volunteers can provide the same level of service as paid firefighters is another argument. However, hundreds of thousands of homes across Canada are serviced by volunteers so I don't see how only having 2 paid firefighters at fire initially is any worse than having volunteers covering fires for millions of people across Canada.