Grand Forks Fire/Rescue will be getting a third full-time, paid member later this year according to a press release distributed by the city Thursday.
The department is currently composed of 48 volunteer members and two full-time members, chief Dale Heriot and deputy chief Kevin McKinnon.
According to the press release, the addition of a staff member is in response to rising call volume: the department has seen volume rise 50 per cent over the past five years from a yearly average of 300 from 2007-2012 to an average of 450 calls per year between 2013-2017.
The addition of a staff member would be on par with other similar-sized communities including Fernie and Revelstoke, according to the city.
Changes to the provincial Fire Safety Act (FSA) are also expected to increase the workload for local fire departments, the city notes.
The Fire Safety Act will replace the Fire Services Act, which according to the B.C. government had been in place since 1979. The new act was announced in February 2016 and is expected to be implemented late 2018 or in 2019.
Heriot said that while the act has not yet been implemented, draft copies have been distributed and fire departments province-wide are grappling with how these changes will affect their operations.
One of the proposed changes will require that all public occupancy buildings outside city limits are also fire-inspected, whereas currently, Heriot said inspections in the regional district are done at owner’s request. Inspections within the city are done routinely.
Another change in the FSA will affect liability. Currently, after a notice from the municipality that a building is in non-compliance the issue moves to the province to resolve and litigate, if necessary. Under the Fire Safety Act, compliance could become the local government’s to address, Heriot said.
These changes will add an adminstrative burden on the department, Heriot said, making an additional staff member necessary.
“There will be an increase in workload for us,” he said.
Heriot said the position would be included in this year’s budget and would represent an increase in 2018, although he did not provide a dollar figure.
He added that the city and the RDKB have a contract for service for fire services in the regional district, and that contract will soon be up for renegotiation.
If the Fire Safety Act goes ahead as proposed, there could be an additional financial impact to the RDKB’s contract with the city, though Heriot said it is “wait and see” at this point.
“A portion of salaries are paid by the RDKB contract for service, the impact will be softened,” he said. “There may be renegotiation down the road.”
The new position will formally be termed the Deputy Chief of Training, Operations and Administration, in response to the growing administration requirements of the department as a result of both the reporting requirements for training firefighters and the new Fire Safety Act. The new officer will deal with human resources as well as incident command.
“With all the emerging extremes in weather and events, incident command is becoming critical,” Heriot said. “In the last two to three years, how many extreme events there have been in B.C., Alberta and California. In the fire service, we are thinking it is becoming more the norm than the extreme, we can’t stop it and we need to prepare and deal with it.”
A job posting will be released in February, and the new position is expected to begin in April 2018. Hiring is expected to be a fire department driven initiative, Heriot said, and the department will be looking internally as well as externally for an officer to fill the position. While there are requirements, Heriot said the equivalent experience will also be considered and existing fire department members are encouraged to submit their resumes.