Recommended MINIMUM fire staffing levels ignored by Mayor?!

[soupy]

Gloves for active fires are just a bit better than wearing boxing gloves.

LOL. That's comical.
A little bit of an exaggeration there.

[Boda]

https://www.castanet.net/news/Kelowna/2 ... ck-at-work

Read Chris Zimmermann's excuse for taking off his gloves here.

[Grandan]

https://www.castanet.net/news/Kelowna/276154/Kelowna-firefighter-Chris-Zimmermann-happy-to-be-back-at-work

Read Chris Zimmermann's excuse for taking off his gloves here.

Having read the scenario I retract my remarks, obviously there was more to the story than the public was privy to. I am glad he cleared that up.

[seewood]

LOL. That's comical. A little bit of an exaggeration there.

Yea, a little. They do protect from heat though. Part of our rookie training was a "cold start" at North Okanagan's training facility in Vernon. Room was ambient temp when the pallets in the corner were lit up. Everyone in full turn out gear including gloves.
After about a minute we asked the rookies to take a glove off and SLOWLY put you hand up. Demonstrating thermal columns in a structure, the air got very warm to hot the higher the arm/hand went up. Put the gloves back on and another minute perhaps passed. Inside temp was now approaching 300F. Turnout gear and gloves did what they were designed to do, protect our body parts.
Fire fighters are trained to manipulate their breathing apparatus with gloves on and do most evolutions with gloves on.

Staffing is a difficult thing to deal with. Chief wants fire fighters and mayor has budget issues. Perhaps in the olden days, more tax revenue came from industrial business's than today. Raise residential property taxes to make up revenue shortfalls, and could be a short 4 years in office..

Reading the statement from the fire fighter, really happy is back at work doing what he loves to do.

[dle]

LOL. That's comical. A little bit of an exaggeration there.

Yea, a little. They do protect from heat though. Part of our rookie training was a "cold start" at North Okanagan's training facility in Vernon. Room was ambient temp when the pallets in the corner were lit up. Everyone in full turn out gear including gloves.
After about a minute we asked the rookies to take a glove off and SLOWLY put you hand up. Demonstrating thermal columns in a structure, the air got very warm to hot the higher the arm/hand went up. Put the gloves back on and another minute perhaps passed. Inside temp was now approaching 300F. Turnout gear and gloves did what they were designed to do, protect our body parts.
Fire fighters are trained to manipulate their breathing apparatus with gloves on and do most evolutions with gloves on.

Staffing is a difficult thing to deal with. Chief wants fire fighters and mayor has budget issues. Perhaps in the olden days, more tax revenue came from industrial business's than today. Raise residential property taxes to make up revenue shortfalls, and could be a short 4 years in office..

Reading the statement from the fire fighter, really happy is back at work doing what he loves to do.

This is a good informative post....thanks for the info.

[Deepsix]

Still does not address why they decided to enter a Unoccupied structure fire with no active sprinkler systems?

[firsttimecaller]

Still does not address why they decided to enter a Unoccupied structure fire with no active sprinkler systems?

Ummmm because that is their job. The place wasn't immersed in flames when they went in. You armchair firemen with ridiculous statements are something else.

[youjustcomplain]

Ummmm because that is their job. The place wasn't immersed in flames when they went in. You armchair firemen with ridiculous statements are something else.

Going into a burning structure is part of their job; yes.
However, it sounds like the group of them found themselves in a position to need to call a mayday. Something went wrong for that to happen. That was likely reviewed to isolate where the mistake happened. Was it the crew, was it an IC error? Was it just unavoidable? I don't know. But it's not ridiculous to ask why. Without asking why, we're bound to repeat our mistakes.

I wouldn't take the question as a criticism of the fire department, the IC or the fire fighters involved.

[stuphoto]

But we have a secret weapon for fires.

The Ogopogo rises up from the lake, flies to the fire with a belly full of water.
It then spits out the water putting out the fire in every room of the building so quickly all you can see is his Rainbow cape and pink lace underware.
At the same time he is picking up anyone he sees and dropping them out the window for his friend the Bigfoot to catch.

So the entire fire department is just there for show.

[Glacier]

In a big azz fire you get fire crews coming in from Lake Country and West Klowntown.

[GordonH]

For myself if I was to buy a condo, my first thing is to find out how high the tallest ladder truck Kelowna has and purchase a floor or 2 below that (or more).

[Even Steven]

Not to mention that modern highrise buildings have lots of passive fire suppressive systems and designs. Starting from sprinkler systems to firewalls, etc. Ladders are not necessary when fighting fires in high rises.

[cv23]

Not to mention that modern highrise buildings have lots of passive fire suppressive systems and designs. Starting from sprinkler systems to firewalls, etc. Ladders are not necessary when fighting fires in high rises.

Check the date today and tell us again about how successful "passive fire suppressive systems and designs, starting from sprinkler systems to firewalls, etc" are in fighting highrise fires.

[kelownman]

https://www.castanet.net/news/Think-Local/310300/ONE-Water-Street-s-east-tower-stands-tallest-on-Kelowna-horizon

So we now have the largest building from vancouver to calgary, with more coming, but the entire city is only protected by the smallest possible fire department of 20ish firefighters during any time of the day. Can someone please have a sensible discussion in how these structures are being approved by council?

s<<<<nip>>>>>

Why do we feel Kelowna firefighters should risk their lives more than the rest of the world? Is it simply so the speculation can continue to pad pockets of capitalism and keep our economy falsely running? Money over lives? I would love someone else from the city to tell us how Kelowna has made this happen while every other city in the world cannot!

Considering it was a "sponored content" written by or for the developer, fire safety or fire fighting is somethinng that they wouldnt want to include in the article.

Maybe you should copy and paste what you wrote and send an email to the mayor and council and see if they respond!

[DetectivePikachu]

For myself if I was to buy a condo, my first thing is to find out how high the tallest ladder truck Kelowna has and purchase a floor or 2 below that (or more).

They don't use Ladders on high rises,.

Don't take my word for it.

http://www.condo-owner.com/article/the- ... h-my-unit/

“We heard that question all the time,” Gulf Shores Fire Chief Hartley Brokenshaw said. “They would ask how a person would be safe in a condo unit 150 feet off the ground when the longest ladder we had on a truck was 100 feet.”

The response given by fire personnel surprised most of the people who asked the question. “We would tell them we can’t reach them by ladder,” said Brokenshaw. “You should have seen the look on their faces.”

But, Brokenshaw said there’s a good reason for the apparently nonchalant answer. “We would never try and rescue someone from a high-rise with our ladder trucks. These newer high-rise condos, built since 2000 at least, are built to the National Fire Protection Association code, and they have ladders built into the condos – the stairs. In case of a fire, our firefighters go up the stairs, plug their hoses into a standpipe located on each floor of the stairwell and fight the fire from the inside.”

And, he said anyone who owns a unit beyond the third floor in one of these buildings knows the windows in these units are solid panes, and not built to open. “So we couldn’t get anyone out via a ladder truck even if we could reach them.”