Centre Wellington Fire Chief Brad Patton has a number of issues that his department is facing over the next few years, but he is uncertain just when any of them will be considered by council or approved.
Patton would like to have a full time training officer, a few more thermal imaging cameras, and, someday down the road, he foresees a third fire station.
Patton, like other department heads in Centre Wellington, is going through a strategic planning exercise that is expected to project what each department will need over the next ten years, and how to approach accomplishing that. The plans are to be designed for review every five years by councillors to ensure they are on the correct track.
The Wellington Advertiser is doing a series of interviews with each of those department heads to inform residents of some of the things that each department head is projecting over the next decade.
For Patton, one of the big issues is that the very nature of the Fire Department has changed drastically. Not only is it no longer like the department of 20 years ago, today’s firefighters face challenges that they did not have to meet even five years ago.
“Fires are approximately five per cent or less of what we do,” Patton said. “And 85% of our budget.”
Today’s volunteers are rescue workers and paramedics, too.
“It’s not just here; it’s right across the province,” he said. “If you don’t have a guy with a gun or need an ambulance, you call the fire department,” he said of the nature of the work.
The two departments in Centre Wellington, in Elora and Fergus, are to have complements of 26 firefighters per unit.
Training is a big issue. Patton said, “Our profession doesn’t allow for mistakes.”
He said firefighters have to be part chemists, and part physicists, simply to note odours that are found in some houses.
And, he said, “There are so many calls, it takes a tremendous amount of training. The training is one of the hardest things to achieve because so many people have such busy lives. It’s hard to squeeze in.”
There is another factor for Centre Wellington’s department. It not only deals with fire and ambulance, but also high angle rescues at the Elora Gorge, and also fast moving water rescues on the Grand River and also at the Shand dam. That means training that even many full time departments do not need to do.
Volunteer fire departments have been called the biggest bargain municipalities will ever have.
Last year in Centre Wellington, the firefighters provided 17,000 hours of service.
“That’s a lot of time, considering they have full time jobs, families, and other social commitments,” Patton said.
That is one reason that he would like a full time training officer. That would ensure the maximum use of the men’s training time. A full time trainer would have the equipment set up and ready, and could teach in batches, depending on when volunteers could attend.
There are other problems, too, facing departments. Volunteers are not staying as long as they use to.
“The provincial average is five years and out for a volunteer,” Patton said. “Considering it takes five years to get them fully trained …”
He hastened to added, “Our stats are much better, but we are going through a lot of changes in personnel. We’ve changed over half the Elora station in four to five years.”
Fortunately, Patton said, “We have a good roster of applicants. They’re going through training now,” and are due to start by Aug. 1.
Volunteer departments used to be referred to as “the last boys’ club in town,” and Centre Wellington does not have any women on either of its stations’ rosters – but Patton said he hopes that will change.
The current 12 recruits are all male, but, “We certainly are an equal opportunity employer. We’ve have a couple of women very close to the mark – but we had a very good group of applicants.” He added that he hopes some of those women who did not make the cut this time will re-apply.
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Hotter fires
The time was when a fire- fighter was called to a house fire, he would face flames and temperatures of 800 degrees per cubic foot of space.
Those days are gone.
Today, that has doubled to an average of 1,600 degrees for the same space.
Patton said the reason is simple.
“Just about everything out there is chemically made. There is no real, natural fibres in a house any more. Everything’s chemically made. It burns much hotter and is much more toxic than ever before.”
It is not only houses, but also cars.
There is another difference from five years ago, too.
Modern fire fighting necessitates special protective equipment for the volunteers, but it has also changed the tactics they use.
He explained houses were once built very solidly, with strong beams. Today’s standards have changed so those beams are thin strips of wood. Not only does the chemically treated wood burn hotter, but also faster. With lighter trusses and beams, it is “not uncommon for a new house to collapse in seven minutes – the time it takes to get there. The structure [as it is built] works very well, but if one part fails, the whole thing fails.”
A comparison might be the way old cars made of metal were made, compared to the one’s made today.
So, when it comes to fighting a house fire, “What you could get away with five years ago, you’d be a fool to try today,” Patton said. “It’s not just houses. It’s car extractions, too.”
That is why he would like the department to have more thermal imaging cameras. Those devices allow the user to determine where the fire is hottest, so firefighters can concentrate their efforts on those spots. They also allow firefighters to detect hot spots when they appear to have a fire under control.
Still, Patton is not complaining about the gear his men use. The oldest piece of equipment is an 18-year-old pumper in Elora, and it is due to be replaced in two years. Council has been setting aside funds for that purpose to avoid taking a major hit on its budget.
“We’re very fortunate. We have a lot of nice equipment,” Patton said. “We’ve replaced 70% of it in the last five years. It’s very modern, and it works very well.”
He noted the thermal imaging cameras can also be used for search and rescues, too. They can detect body heat.
Patton said sometime in the future the trucks will be carrying computers so when firefighters roll up to a major fire like a church at 2am, they can call up the floor plans of that building to help them fight the fire more efficiently.
He also noted that the department, under Fire Prevention Officer Tom Mulvey, will likely complete a mapping exercise by the end of this year that will allow firefighters to know where the closest source of water in rural areas is located, and if a pumper truck or portable pumper can best be utilized to reach that supply and deliver it where it is needed.
There are thousands of buildings in Centre Wellington, and such equipment is not yet in place with floor plans available. That will require working with the building department.
The fire department also works with the Public Works Department for the best routes to every fire location. Electronic mapping could someday provide that, making for more efficient service.
Until then, the Elora and Fergus dispatch centres have electronic and paper maps to use to ensure men and equipment get to the right place quickly. That includes avoiding roads with closed bridges and also places where roads are under construction.
“One of the pluses is that all of our staff lives in Centre Wellington and has a good understanding of its roads and how to there there,” he said.
Patton is working with the information technology section to become even more efficient at that.
He hopes by the end of the year to have computers on at least two trucks.
“We’ve got to do electronic planning. There’s no room in the truck for file boxes.”
Full time, huge costs
Patton said there are no plans at all to merge the Fergus and Elora stations, and, if anything, there will come a time when a third station is needed, but he predicted it will take years to determine where it should be located.
And there have been rumours since amalgamation that the fire department is moving to become full time. Patton just shakes his head at that one.
His current budget for two part time stations and 52 volunteers is $1.2-million. To place four full time firefighters on a rotating shift 24 hours a day, seven days a week would cost $1.2-million.
“Four firefighters are not enough to go to a car accident, let alone a fire, or gorge rescues,” he said. As well, there would be a shift off duty, and he said the cost would be over $13-million a year to operate a full time department.
Still, Centre Wellington is one of the largest municipalities in Ontario to still operate with volunteers. Only Patton and Mulvey are full-time firefighters.
“That also makes us one of the most cost effective in Ontario. I’m very very proud of our response times and staff. We get a lot of people out in very short order,” Patton said.
Owen Sound, for example, has a population of 22,000, much smaller than Centre Wellington’s 27,000, and it has a full time fire service. So does Brockville, which has 22,000 people. Innisfil, with 32,000 people, has a combination of volunteers and full time people. Caledon, with 58,000 people, has 15 full timers and 228 volunteers.
Many of the municipalities with populations similar to Centre Wellington’s have combinations of hirings. Fort Erie, with a population almost exactly the same as Centre Wellington, has 142 volunteers and seven full time employees.
Patton said expansion of the fire departments could come from various pressures brought on council. Those could include insurance companies, who would hike premiums for businesses and cause them to complain, or perhaps it could be ratepayers who simply are willing to pay for better service. “Or, it could come from council. I have no idea when that day will come,” Patton said.
He noted that many people who have moved to the area from places like Oakville and Toronto are amazed to learn the firefighters who arrive when they call are volunteers. Many assume they were full time employees.
“There’ll be more of that as the community grows,” he said.
