Cranbrook Fire and Emergency Services (CFES) presented an overview of current service level demands to City of Cranbrook council last night.

In the context of risk, staff brought forward information to council illustrating the volume and types of calls the department responds to in a given year.

Fire Chief Scott Driver told council that the 567 fire and rescue events firefighters responded to in 2022, “for our customers, those represent the worst days of their lives.”

The total calls responded to (see below) was four fewer than in 2021. The call number amounts to 6.5% of all Cranbrook residents calling the fire department for assistance.

While the total number of calls isn’t rising, Chief Driver said, “I can confidently say that the severity of the incidents we’re visiting is increasing significantly.”

He explained the severity is more about “litigation following calls is increasing and downstream impacts to residents that are experiencing those incidents is increasing and certainly the suffering the individuals are undergoing is increasing.

“The Knight’s Hall fire was a very good example of the downstream impacts. That’s one fire but that took basically six weeks of my time to try and sort through. So, I was very, very busy for six weeks and that is a downstream consequence.”

A close look at the CFES role in the pre-hospital care system was also provided, as well as a discussion around the challenges facing the staffing model in the current environment.

“In almost all cases, our call volume is rising,” Driver said of providing emergency medical service delivery.

The total of ‘immediate life-threatening calls in 2022 was 595, up from 488 in 2021.

“There are very significant and obvious increases in demand for service and I think the one that is most shocking to most people is in the Cranbrook area is overdose calls actually went down; the only significant category that went down. Sixteen percent from 2022 over 2021.”

Of the 122 overdose calls attended by CFES in 2022, “the caller was only able to impart upon the dispatcher it was an overdose call 41 of the 122 times,” the fire chief noted. “We didn’t know we were going to an overdose call 81 times. It’s a symptom of a family member finding somebody at a decreased level of consciousness in their home and they say that ‘my family member has fainted’ or ‘somebody has fallen and they’re having a heart attack.’ And when we show up we realize that it’s an overdose call.”

Driver added, “the untold story of the overdose crisis is that the overdoses are happening visibly in the streets of Cranbrook and very invisibly at the same time in the homes in Cranbrook.”

The fire chief’s presentation included a discussion on service level as it pertains to the experience of delivering those services, in order to keep council current on how the CFES policy functions in guiding the delivery of fire and emergency services in the community and surrounding area.

Included in that policy is a requirement for a four-person crew on hand to respond to a fire or harmful environment call, which possibly helped save up to five lives in 2022, Driver said.

That level means a tricky balancing act with staffing, especially when injury or mental health issues arise, he said.

e-KNOW file photos

e-KNOW

Article Share