The Grand Forks fire department is responding to a WorkSafeBC inspection report that found several key safety measures weren’t being met. In its report, the safety oversight body found that mask-fit, hearing and fire hose pressure tests were not being done to the level required by the province.
Kevin McKinnon, the city’s deputy corporate officer, said that though the department failed to meet WorkSafeBC’s requirements, that does not indicate that no standard tests were being done.
“It’s not that things weren’t being done at all and there was this culture of wild west, it is just that WorkSafe has some specific procedures, and those specific procedures, we weren’t necessarily doing it to that degree,” McKinnon said.
For instance, the deputy fire chief explained, Grand Forks firefighters are trained to check the seal on the masks prior to every use. WorkSafeBC, however, requires that a mask’s vacuum seal with individual firefighters is measured annually, so as to ensure firefighters are using the best-fitting equipment.
McKinnon said that as of last Thursday, the department had satisfied four of the six concerns raised by WorkSafeBC. He said that proper hose testing — where lines are run at 300 psi, or three times their official maximum pressure — will be completed by the end of the month.
The department has also resolved to implement formal workplace conduct, bullying and harassment training seminars, to form an occupational health and safety committee and to undergo an audit of its policies and conduct. The resolutions came last week in response to a city HR investigation into alleged bullying in the department from a volunteer firefighter who alleged that he was bullied for initially bringing safety concerns to department leadership. The same allegations also spurred the original WorkSafeBC investigation.
As a result, Grand Forks fire chief Dale Heriot has been on paid administrative leave since May 7, and will remain away from the job until both the city and WorkSafeBC’s HR investigations wrap up.
Since WorkSafeBC arrived at the Grand Forks fire department in April, McKinnon said he is aware of at least one other municipal fire department to have been investigated.
“I fully suspect that we may have been among the first, but we certainly won’t be the last,” he said.