10-06-2021, 10:08 AM
(10-06-2021, 01:09 AM)nms Wrote: Kitchener Fire Department says it needs more staff and new fire station to deal with growing city (CBC, October 5, 2021)
Quote:"Our last station ... in 2008 it opened, station seven, and we're in 2021, so our biggest challenge is that we can't meet our response times especially in the downtown core," Fire Chief Bob Gilmore told CBC K-W's The Morning Edition on Tuesday.
The report showed response times for medical or fire rescue calls between 2016 and 2019 took longer than the industry standard 43 per cent of the time, and call volume had increased by 14.51 per cent during that same time.
Quote:Gilmore said the FUS states that anything above 2,500 calls a year is considered a high-volume station.
Fire station 2, which primarily responds to emergency calls in the downtown, is the department's busiest station. They were responding to more than 3,100 calls in 2016 and more than in 3,800 in 2019. Station 4, located on Fairway Road, is expected to reach the 2,500 call benchmark within the next year, according to the report.
I'd like to see a breakdown of the calls that they responded to. Based on my (earlier) reading, as well as anecdotal observations, a lot of the calls the fire department responds to are medical only, and there is little need for a giant fire truck to be sent out. The number of actual fires has been on a rather steady decline for a very long time.
Maybe more of those medical calls could be redirected to paramedics, and, if necessary, we could add another paramedic crew or two?