Response times slower after move to new fire hall

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This article was published 11/02/2012 (5232 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When a health emergency hits and every second can make a difference between life and death, emergency service response times matter.

On Jan. 19, city officials released statistics that showed Brandon Fire and Emergency Services’ citywide response time in 2011 was under nine minutes in 90 per cent of its calls, while 80 per cent of its calls received a response in under seven minutes.

When he was still president of the Brandon Professional Firefighters’/Paramedics Association, Terry Parlow said in a Dec. 3. 2007, letter to the Brandon Sun that a fire hall built at Maple Avenue and 18th Street would leave 22 per cent of Brandon residents with response times that could reach 10 minutes.

“This is unacceptable,” Parlow wrote.

On Oct. 17, 2007, Brandon Fire Chief Brent Dane said, referring to the construction of a fire hall at 18th Street and Princess Avenue, that, “Our goal is to reach 90 per cent of the population 90 per cent of the time in five minutes or less.”

Those comments were made during a debate on where the new Firehall No. 1 would be built. The structure was eventually built approximately five blocks away from the proposed location, at the corner of 19th Street and Maple Avenue.

On Jan. 26, 2011, the city reported that response times from the new fire hall were approximately 6.5 minutes, 25 seconds more than calls from the old hall on Princess Avenue.

Dane said the current response times for emergency services are not a concern.

“Those were statements made (in 2007) and when that location isn’t chosen, the goals change,” Dane said.

The stats Dane provided showed in 2009, when Firehall No. 1 was on Princess Avenue downtown EMS response times were 4.83 minutes. In 2011, the first year at the new Firehall No. 1 location, response times were 4.87 minutes. This does not include time required to suit up to respond and get the vehicle out of the garage, but did represent 83 per cent of the calls the department handles.

“Even with a five-minute response time, there’s a one-minute turnout time that really puts response time at about six minutes anyway,” Dane said.

Coun. Stephen Montague (Richmond) said he opposed the construction of one fire hall, favouring instead adding two satellite fire halls to reduce response times.

“One would have been at the Fleming School property, the other would have been at First (Street) and Kirkcaldy (Drive),” Montague said. “That would have met the (five minute) response rate they were looking for. With the central location we have now, obviously service is better to some parts of the city, but when you look at the response times we are posting now, it’s not at the standard we need to have.”

Montague said with plans to expand the city to the south, west and north, fire and emergency services will need to be evaluated.

“When you look at the majority of our calls being EMS and not for fire services, that’s when time is critical because we need ambulances to get to calls as quickly as possible to save lives.”

Call volumes and times can be broken down according to the two fire halls, but the response times vary because “some areas just have more calls than others.”

“For example, in 2007, there were 105 calls for the No. 2 hall in the six- to seven-minute range where there were 25 calls for No. 2 hall,” Dane said. “The most accurate way is to combine them both … It’s just a matter of which hall can get there quicker.”

Dane said when Brandon’s response times were compared with other growing communities in 2007, the department fared well.

“We were the lowest, or tied for lowest, in response times when compared to Red Deer, Fort McMurray, Strathcona (County), Medicine Hat and Lethbridge,” Dane said.

Other factors in response time include how the city grows, because once built, fire halls are set in place, Dane said.

“If, for example, there was an expansion of the city to the west, the first thing we would see is response times would get longer and we’d see more calls in that area,” Dane said. “That’s when you start planning for an additional hall when times get beyond reason.”

» kborkowsky@brandonsun.com