A grass fire that overlapped with several other calls on Friday, May 1, exposed a longstanding staffing issue with Brandon’s Fire and Emergency Services according to the union representing them.
Brandon Firefighter Paramedics Local 803 took to social media on Monday, May 4 to recount how staffing issues had hindered them in battling a blaze south of Brandon. In a post on Facebook, the union said five firefighters went to the initial call, but both the size of the fire and other emergencies in their response area meant they were calling in members for overtime and still didn’t have enough manpower.
“Initially it looked like they were going to be able to contain it,” said Gage Wood, President of IAFF Local 803, the union representing Brandon firefighter paramedics. “However, the wind was doing all sorts of things on Friday. It shifted directions several times, and quite frankly, the five that were out there never had a chance to get this contained. We were able to send a couple more staff out, however, while that was going on that doesn’t mean the calls in Brandon stopped. Our crews were attending fire alarms, motor vehicle collisions, ambulance calls, and while that was going on another fire in our primary area north of town came in.”
Brandon Fire Chief Terry Parlow confirmed that the grass fire south of Brandon required mutual aid from nearby RMs to put out. The fire started at about 1:00 in the afternoon. He also said Minnedosa firefighters had responded to the fire north of town as it occurred roughly on the border between the two departments’ purviews.
“Throughout the incident we had up to 14 staff out there on scene due to the fact there were several properties at risk,” Parlow said. “We also asked for Shilo and Wawanesa to come and assist as well, not just because of staffing but because of equipment. When a fire is spread over a large area, you need water. Shilo brought their tanker, Wawanesa brought their tanker, and we were able to save all properties. We thank Wawanesa and Shilo Fire Departments for coming to assist us, just as we do for them in mutual aid responses.”
According to the union, this fire was just the latest incident demonstrating Brandon has a need for more firefighters. A firefighter was injured in this fire, according to Wood, and the firefighter, while released from hospital, will miss some time from work.
“We’ve been saying for so long, we don’t have the people to fight these fires efficiently,” he said. “We need more staff. We’ve been desperately asking for more staff for years. Unfortunately, it’s coming to light now that we are understaffed, especially from the firefighting perspective, which is first and foremost the city’s responsibility.”
According to Wood, Brandon’s firefighters are part of a dual-role service. Brandon Fire and EMS provide the ambulance service in Brandon and surrounding Brandon. The ambulance service is contracted through Shared Health, and falls under the province’s umbrella of responsibility. Now the union wants to see the City of Brandon invest more in the fire department, to bring their investment up to par with other cities in Western Canada.
“We’re not even close to our peers in terms of firefighter investment,” said Wood. “Cities like Prince Albert, Moose Jaw, they have populations of 35,000 and they have 45 firefighters that the municipality pays for. Right now, Shared Health is paying for at least 41 of our positions, and when I prepared our budget analysis, we had 80 operational staff. Over half of our department is funded by Shared Health.”
Wood opined that a dual role system is still the way to go for Brandon, and other cities like Lethbridge in Alberta are proof that the system can work. But Lethbridge, according to Wood, has 250 staff to serve a city of 106,000 people. And Brandon is proposing to grow substantially in the next decade in terms of its population; Mayor Jeff Fawcett has said 80,000 people could live here by 2040.
“Quite frankly, it’s scary,” Wood said. “I’m not a full-time union guy, I work these trucks with my members every day. The burden that’s being placed on them is heartbreaking. Nobody gets into this job because they don’t want to be able to help people, but we really feel like we’re in a helpless situation right now. We need the city to step up their investment. We don’t have the protection for the citizens we have right now, let alone if the city gets to 80,000 people. That’s why we’re trying to spread the word about this.”
Wood added that the first thing he wants to see change is an increase in funding from the city, but the EMS side is also extremely busy and needs more attention as well.
“We’re at the breaking point right now. We had a lot of people come in for overtime on Friday, and it still wasn’t enough to meet all the demands expected of our service. There needs to be meaningful investment by the city in its firefighters and fire protection.”
