*** UPDATE *** Saturday, April 18, 2009 - ToL 2008 Fire Report Released
This Monday Township Council Receives this 2008 Fire Department Report for Fire Chief Doug Wade. The report contains a wealth of information related to our fire/first responders service to the community. Report Highlights:
- Call Volumes were up by 25% over 2007
- They met their commitment to respond within 8 minutes 90% of the time to areas served by fulltime firefighters.
- At the end of 2008 there were 132 paid-call firefighters and 51 career personnel
- In 2008 paid-call firefighters continued to provide the majority of emergency response to Fort Langley, Walnut Grove, Murrayville, Brookswood and Otter. Traditionally there has been a turnover rate of 10-15% within the paid-call ranks.
- In 2008 Emergency Response was a major focus of department operations with nearly 56% of calls related to medical and/or motor vehicle accidents.
- Fire calls increased slightly from 2007.
- Overall, the department responded to 5,083 requests for assistance in 2008, a 25% increase since 2007 and a 53% increase since 2006.
- In the past 5 years since 2004, call volumes have increased 68%
From Previous Post:
FIRST RESPONDERS NOT ONLY TO FIRES - As you can see from our last post, there are many opinions offered on our fire department program. In an effort to allow for more public input, we are putting up this post for all your fire department comments.
Please be respectful in your comments and those you may disagree with. Please try to stick to facts and not speculation or rumor. We would also like to comment that although some fire fighters may have offered their personal (off-duty) time to posting some candidate signage, we see no evidence of any fire apparatus or on-duty personnel being used for this task. Unless you have pictures and evidence to prove otherwise, please refrain from any speculation.
Now with these ground rules in place, please post your comments on our fire service in the Township of Langley. Also, it would be great to hear from some full-time fire chiefs (or retired chiefs) on these issues. Commenters may want to list any qualifications they may have in this field. Post away!
8 comments:
First don't call them 'Fire' Department. They are the 'First Responders' in our community. Inmany communities it is not the fire that respond first it may be some other emergency organizations. Our department responds obviously to all fire cals but also many other calls, accidents, chemical spills, highway incidents, amongst many other call-outs. The crew have to be trained in far more than fire so our training expectations exceed that in other jurisdictions. They do a superb jopb of public education both in our community and in our schools, we have seen in the past where this has had a positive result as young children have known how to react and respond in emergency situations due to the work they do.
They are noted leaders in their field in the province in several areas whcih speaks highly for the leadership from the top down and the commitment of the many members, full-time and 'on-call'.
As a community at 100,000 now and soon to be 125,000 and moving upward, an 'on-call' system would not work. The expectations of greater density, higher buildings more bridges, more highways etc., etc. all demand better service, training and equipment.
These folks are top notch professionals with many skills, they are our team of first reposnders when each and every one of us needs them. I am proud of the crews we have and the department as a whole.
I sure hope the detractors never have an emergency in the mear future. Fortunately Council had the forsight to plan for the future because transition would be more expensive in future years for sure.
The Langley Record goes on record of fully supporting our First Responders and that point is well-taken. While some politicians want to split hairs about downloading of costs, they had better be careful what they wish for.
If I am ever trapped in my vehicle that is spilling gasoline all over the roadway, or I have a medical emergency with an ambulance far away, I would welcome the sight of a Langley Township fire fighter, both full-time and paid call. I also appreciate quick response and I know what its like in an emergency to wait 6-8 minutes instead of 3-5.
LANGLEY TOWNSHIP VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTERS have saved township residents millions of dollars over the years.there comes a time when full time firefighters are a necessity however. with traffic all the time it takes to long to get from home or work to reach the hall slowing down response times.the citizens of langley should appreciate the dedication and the expertise of our firefighters. the times of spraying a little water on ahouse fire is long gone.with chemicals and dangerous goods passing through our town on adaily basis. the equipment is much more complicated and firefighters need extensive training to protect our citizens and also protect themselves so they can go home to there familys. i was once a volunteer chief,my biggest concern was the safety of my volunteers they could not help the citizens if they happended to get injured themselves.safety of my men was always on my mind.my volunteers were some of langleys finest citizens. they were on call 365 days 24 hours a day .they would hop out of bed in the middle of the nit e and do any task that they were given,the next morning they would go to their real job and carry out their duties in a professional maner there also. i would like to salute all firemen especially the original volunteers who worked for no pay and very limited equipment. this is a new era of firefighters and the cost will be extensive ,it will become a substantial portion of township budget.as our population grows a full time firedepartment become a necessity.thanks to all firefighters i have been there KEEP SAFE YOUR NO 1 JOB
I think we are thowing a lot of money away I'm in favor of the paid on call. They did an outstanding job and had great repsonse times. but hay who wouldn't want a job you can sleep at and get paid for it. really 2 minutes faster can they show us were they have saved a life in the last year by being on site 2 minutes sooner? I mean proof that saved a life. Not just made someone feel better. With all the money going to wages, in 10 years all the equipment will be old and slow they will end up with the same resopnse time. Money would be better spent on policing if you want to save lifes
I can't believe what I am reading!! Wanting proof that they have saved a life!!! We are talking about 20 or so dollars a year you are paying to have a full time fire department, think of it as insurance. Most of the home owners have house insurance, well the smart ones anyway!! You will hopefully never in your lifetime have to use it, but if your home burns to the ground and all your contents are lost you are happy you have paid that money over the years to that insurance company so that you may have your home and belongings replaced. Having a professional full time fire department, is just like that except it costs you much less than home insurance and it could be saving a life, not replacing your furniture!!!
We are not reinventing the wheel here in Langley, this full time fire department is not a new fancy idea that just Langley has come up with!!! We are catching up here folks!!! We were the only municipality of its size and population to still rely stickily on a paid call service!! We have been in the dark ages here for too long! Those people who speak out against full time fire are either uneducated in the manner and therefore should be ignored or they are bitter, disgruntled paid call members who couldn't get hired in the last 3 hirings and therefore should comes to terms with the fact that they just weren't good enough. They talk bad about the department and the full time members but fail to say that they would have given anything to be one of them and in fact tried to!!
I believe most of the people who question the "full time department" model are doing so based on the cost. They have not pointed fingers at individuals or their training.....just the cost of manning halls 24/7. They are just asking questions that should have been asked before this change was put into place.
The cost is the same as what any other city has to pay, in fact we are still paying less than those other cities as we are still a mostly paid on call service with only having 3 halls staffed. This cost is one we cannot get around, I don't understand why people can't figure that out. There is no question, we need a full time fire department.!! Why should the Langley Township residents be given less services? Even Langley city was smart enough years ago to go full time. We are no longer a rural hick town, we are a big city now and people need to start thinking that way!!!
Argument is now mute. 3 full time halls are here, there is only 2 to go and the transition is under way. 1 cannot go backward unless they are fools like Tricky Ricky or Kooky Kimmy who try to play both sides of this debate.
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