It’s hard to believe that 2018 is quickly coming to a close. We here at Barrhead Regional Fire Services are wrapping up an extraordinary year with completion of some projects and planning for 2019 is in full swing. This year has seen some change to our department with new administration, members and response dispatch levels. It has had its challenges and been exciting all at the same time but we hope our future accomplishments will have a lasting impact on the citizens we serve.
In 2018, the Barrhead Regional Fire Services responded to over 285 calls for help from the community. Fifty three of those calls were fires involving structures, vehicles, wildland, grass etc. Twenty nine vehicle collisions and accidents, just over 100 incident assisting citizens with ambulance response, 76 alarms ringing or false alarms, six power lines down, and finally 21 incidents were rescues, hazmat releases, home accidents, carbon monoxide alarms, etc. The overall call volume was down significantly from the previous year, almost 60 calls difference. This was due to two factors; one was a change in our Medical First Responder program dispatch plan in what we respond to. The second was early rains in the spring and fall that resulted in a shorter wild fire season.
Some of our projects over the year to help serve the community better were to upgrade our communication system. Moving our radio system to digital gave us greater range and less spots without communication. Members now carry a radio instead of a pager to be notified of an incident. The radio also gives every member the ability to communicate with command or their officer on scene. This increases safety to all. Another project was to give training to all our firefighter in the new Wild land Firefighter curriculum. We completed our training this fall so now your fire department members are provincially certified in the new training. Third and most important is recruitment of new members. This year we saw an increase of new recruits and members leave the department. To date we have 24 members, eight of those are either returning or a new recruit. If you would like to start your career in the fire service as a paid on call firefighter please contact us at the fire hall.
Giving back to the community is a big part of our fire service, this year we served hundreds of hotdogs, assisted at the parades, the pumpkin walk, took Santa off a roof, shot fireworks and joined in at other special events within the community. Members did medical stand by at the local rodeos, demolition derby and extreme sporting events. We donated food to the food bank and participated in the festival of trees. We believe in supporting local events and are happy to aid in their success.
These are a few of the highlights from your fire department as we wrap up the year 2018. I look forward to the coming year as we continue to provide a great value to our community.
Gary Hove
Barrhead fire department chief
