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Where Does Fire Protection In My Community Come From? |
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Posted by: Anonymous
Date Entered: Sep 16, 2009
Last Update: Sep 17, 2009 - 3:25 PM |
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Neighbours Helping Neighbours to Protect Life and Property |
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Volunteer Fire Fighter Recruitment! |
David Blacquiere |
Date Entered: Sep 17, 2009 |
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You may have seen the movies Backdraft or Ladder 49. Maybe you’ve caught an episode of Rescue Me or Third Watch. Certainly some of you remember the 1970s television series Emergency. Most images on television, in movies and in books are those of career or paid firefighters. They work, eat and sleep at the fire station. The bell rings, and off they go to the emergency.
Is that the image you have? Unfortunately, that’s not the case throughout most of the country. Nearly 91 percent of the 3,492 fire departments in Canada are volunteer departments. Here’s how your fire Emergency Services works.
There are three parts to the fire protection equation. Think of it as a triangle with information and resources flowing in both directions. It is made up of :
The Fire District - The Fire Company - The Community
Let’s take a look at the responsibilities of each one:
The Fire District is the political boundary where the community is located. Its governing body is the Board of Directors, volunteer community residents who are elected. They help by securing tax dollars to provide needed equipment and training. They also secure funding for the operating costs of the building, grounds and equipment.
The Fire Company is the human resource, responsible for answering to community’s calls for help. Every week they perform checks of all equipment and train for emergency situations. They are volunteers. They leave their jobs and the dinner table, and they get up in the middle of the night-all to help a neighbour in need.
Most important, there is the Community, which also has responsibilities for fire protection. The first is practising fire safety at home. The second ensuring a competent and adequately equipped fire department is provided and paying a fire tax to help cover fire district costs. The third largest responsibility of the community is to volunteer.
In the fire service, we learn about the fire triangle:
fuel + heat + oxygen = FIRE
If you take one element out of the equation, the fire goes out. If you remove one of the components in our fire protection triangle, the fire gets bigger, people lose their property, and some may even lose their lives,.
Currently, there is an imbalance in the fire protection triangle.
- The Fire District supplies funding through tax dollars to meet budgets.
- The Fire Company uses and maintains the equipment and answers the community’s calls for help, although it is struggling to do so.
- The Community pays the taxes, but here is where the breakdown of the triangle begins. The human resources are not being provided to the fire company.
This is hard on a few who are volunteering, and leaves both the fire company and the community at risk. The same jobs normally done at the emergency scene by 15 to 30 firefighters still need to be done even if there are only 5 to 8 firefighters
This causes undue stress on the firefighters and threatens lives. This imbalance also creates property threats, since a few volunteers can only do so much.
Ask yourself, What am I doing Wednesday nights that is more important that learning how to save lives? or Could I live with the fact that my neighbours’ house burned or they lost their lives and all I could do was watch?
You own the firehouse, the trucks and all the equipment. Be more than just an owner-be a member. |
David Blacquiere, Prince Edward Island Office of the Fire Marshal, Provincial Fire Marshal |
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