Perhaps Collingwood fire chief Trent Elyea could have spoken slower, and used smaller, simpler words.
Like, “Save. People. Good.”
Evidently, his message wasn’t quite getting through to people around the council table; well, with the exception of councillors Ian Chadwick and Kathy Jeffery.
The rest, though, had a tough time with the concept of what it means to add an extra guy (or girl) to a shift. Adding that extra person could mean the difference between a structure being saved, or a life-or-death situation. It ain’t that complex.
Council also has a raft of studies and reports, going back to the mid-’90s, telling them what they need to do with the fire department. The most recent, in 2002, was an Ontario Fire Marshal report that told them they needed to go from three people on a shift to four (which the firefighters’ association had been saying for years, but administration had been resisting), that a deputy-chief needed to be hired for succession planning (that took six years — even after the town went through the process at least twice and in the end didn’t hire until after Trent came on board), and a second fire hall would be needed — likely in the west end — in order to ensure proper response time.
That last one has also been contemplated through the town’s strategic plan (under the consideration of a master plan for the fire department) — which council has approved (in case they forgot). Oh yeah, Trent told them back in 2008 they need a master plan, so it’s not like this council didn’t have it on their radar.
At recently as last fall, the town had been in discussions with a property owner in the east end for a piece of land (I was under the impression a tentative deal had been struck), and the mayor noted in a story last week discussion had taken place with the new Goodyear property owner for a chunk of that land for a west end fire hall (presumably, at that point, the fire department would abandon the Ontario Street headquarters, or maybe leave a truck there for a recall crew).
That second hall, wherever it may be, isn’t contemplated until at least 2012 or 2013. At which point, as Trent indicated, the current crews would be modified, either three and three, or four and two.
Pretty simple. Pricey, yes, but simple.
At the moment, a crew of four (out of a shift of five) could show up to your burning home, but not be able to go in and save your precious collection of Jim Nabors’ albums because there aren’t enough guys (or girls) on the ground to undertake entry; they have to wait for the recall crew to show up, and that could be five minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes — at which point your autographed copy of Jim Nabors Sings the Lord’s Prayer would be a sticky pile of black goo.
With five or six, not only could the firefighters do an entry and save Jim Nabors, they might even be able to rescue that ochre-and-puce-coloured bedspread your great-aunt gave you that you keep tucked in the back of a closet after the cat had kittens on it.
And if there’s two fire halls, if the crew of two shows up first, you can be assured the second crew of four wouldn’t be far behind (like by a minute, based on the response time in town). The first crew can set up the pumper, so by the time the second crew shows up on the scene they can get right to work (Councillor Tim McNabb, notably, couldn’t seem to get his head around the idea of a crew of two showing up at the scene and having to wait for a second crew: it’s simple — they wouldn’t send out one crew, then the other. On a call, everybody gets called out, and it’s just a matter of which truck shows up at the scene first.)
The other element was trying to compare Collingwood to what other municipalities do — again, council had a difficult time understanding Trent’s statement that every municipality is different and has to determine it’s own service levels.
Let’s see: let’s find a small urban municipality of 20,000 people in the midst of a high-traffic resort area, that has several high-rise buildings (six-storey-plus), an ethanol plant using a wet mill process, a whisky distillery, several other associated industries, a landfill, a hospital, and a nearby airport. Throw in a 10-minute response time.
Or, just listen to the recommendation of the guy who’s an expert, has been in firefighting for nearly 30 years, including several years as a fire chief in a small city and was recognized as an innovator who left a department in better shape then when he found it. As Orillia mayor Ron Stevens put it when Elyea resigned his post over there to take the job here, “His job was to give us a No. 1 fire department, and he’s done that.”
Trent’s not trying to build an empire — he’s trying to build a service that’s responsive to the growth of the community, while ensuring that the inherent risk of firefighting for the men and women who work for him is minimized.
Town council has to remember they’re in the service delivery biz, and that includes the delivery of public safety. And you can’t scrimp on safety…
