It has been a busy year for the Barrhead Fire Department. So far this year, as of Sept. 6, the department has responded to 253 calls, smashing the previous record of 226 in 2015.
That is what County of Barrhead councillors learned after fire chief John Whittaker gave his regular quarterly report on Tuesday, Sept. 6.
“This quarter’s report just shows how we are getting hammered in terms of the number of callouts and overall man hours,” he said.
In the second quarter (April, May, June), the fire department responded to 130 calls — 75 in the county and 55 in the Town of Barrhead.
It should be noted that although the town and county of Barrhead are served by one fire department, where the calls originate is important because of the current funding Fire Services agreement signed by the municipalities.
Fixed (utilities, training, cost of full-time members, etc.) and capital equipment cost are shared equally, while operational expenses are picked up, by in large, by the municipality the department responds to.
Of the 75 calls in the county, nine were responding to fire alarms, 22 medical assists, six fires, 31 wildfires, one hazardous material clean up, three motor vehicle collisions and three rescues.
“Some days we may not be called out at all and other days we might receive five or six calls,” Whittaker said, noting the department’s one-day record is eight calls. The department matched the record three times in the second quarter. “There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the number of calls we are going to. It’s not like we have a firebug going around lighting these fires.”
Reeve Bill Lee asked if, especially on the record call out days, the calls were more frequent when the area was experiencing dry weather in early spring.
Whittaker said two of the days were during this time, but one was during the more recent rainy period, adding good weather is a mixed blessing.
Besides being more susceptible to grass and wild fires, Whittaker noted that the department is called out to more motor vehicle accidents.
“Believe it or not, we are called out to less wrecks when it is snowy and miserable out because people are cautious and drive with more care,” he said. “When it is nice people drive like there is no tomorrow and don’t think of the deer and moose.”
Lee then asked Whittaker why he thought the numbers inflated, this year noting Barrhead has experienced dry spells before.
Whittaker said one of the reasons why there has been an increase in wildfires is because of the lightning activity.
“We’ve had more lightning strikes this year than I have ever gone to in my entire career,” he said, adding there have been more than a dozen lightning strikes.
The majority of the fires caused by lightning were put out naturally by the accompanying rain. “But we still have to respond to make sure they are out.”
Whittaker added the department has responded to a number of incidents, with an increasing regularity, that in the past were rare.
For instance, although it didn’t happen in the second quarter, the department responded to a medical assist situation in the Sandhills area near the Holmes Crossing Ecological Reserve two weekends ago.
When fire crews arrived they found a large bush party, attended by about 200 teenagers.
“We put out the fire and helped EMS transport a number of people who were having self induced medical emergencies,” he said. “It doesn’t happen every weekend, but often enough.”
Whittaker reported it wasn’t all bad news.
Due to an increase in the department’s training budget, 12 firefighters will be receiving their National Fire Protection Association 10-01 certification — the professional firefighting standard.
“That means all but four (out of 27) in our department will be 10-01 trained,” he said, adding many members have additional certifications.
Coun. Darrell Troock asked Whittaker if the county should consider a total fire ban in the early spring, in what is normally the dry season.
“I look at these numbers and it is always the first couple of months in the springtime where we really pile on the hours and the cost. If it is as simple as banning fires during this time maybe it is something we should look at.”
Whittaker said it was an option, but suggested he would rather see a change in the fire permitting process.
“If we increased some of our administrative hours and had people come to the hall instead of having our fire guardians go out there it would be more efficient and the department could issue more permits,” he said, adding in the future it would be increasingly difficult for people to arrange for a fire guardian for a permit. “In the next few years we will be using a number of our guardians and they are difficult to replace.”
By having people come to the fire hall, administrative staff would be able to streamline the permitting process.
“We would be able to put it on a map as soon as the person takes a permit out,” Whittaker said, adding he also believed the current 14-day permit was too long. “We fill out the permit and then they would call us to activate. By doing this we would reduce the number of false alarms we are being called out to.”
Coun. Marvin Schatz said instead of having more people, especially farmers, applying for spring and summer burning permits it might be better to allow burning in the winter when the risk of a fire getting out of control was less.
Whittaker said while good in theory, people do not take as much care when burning in winter.
“The problem is that no one wants to take responsibility for his or her actions,” he said, adding he understands the necessity of burning. “But we have to do something. Our call volumes just keep increasing and it’s just going to get worse.”
