During these unusual and unique times many fire departments are being approached to provide drive-bys for birthdays, graduations, front-line workers, and other community events.

Here are some of the numerous good reasons to fully consider such requests:

1. One that comes up most often is answering the question “Does it make someone smile?”
2. It allows firefighters to connect with the residents/community.
3. The residents are keen to show their support for front-line workers and firefighters provide the perfect opportunity.
4. The volunteer fire service may wish to use the opportunity to encourage recruitment.

Before engaging in such activity there are some considerations that should be evaluated to ensure the best interests of the fire protection district are being addressed:

• Does your department already participate in community parades?
• Has your Authority Having Jurisdiction, your Municipal Council, Regional District Board of Directors, etc. been asked to support this initiative?
• Have you consulted your insurance broker to confirm you are compliant with the various policies that are in place?
• Obtaining a policy from your local government is seen as a best practice. The policy would outline the authority given to the Fire Chief to manage requests and/or opportunities. Such a policy would also be seen as formal support from a risk management perspective for the fire chief and firefighters.
• Has the courtesy of asking the local police force to agree to the use of lights and sirens in a non-emergency situation occurred?

The content of your Operational Guideline, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, should include, but not necessarily be limited to the following:

• Number of firefighters on each piece of apparatus.
• Number of events per week the fire department will commit to.
• Appropriate PPE based on the health regulations your community is obliged to follow.
• Department’s position with respect to having non-firefighters riding on the apparatus.
• Department’s position with respect to stopping.
• Department’s position with respect to distributing “gifts” along the route. (Fire prevention material, public safety promotional items, candy, etc.).
• Procedure to follow if an emergency call is received.

Some of the other considerations that have been shared by fire departments providing this community service are:

• Use the opportunity to provide driver training.
• Be prepared to answer the question, if we do it for one, do we feel obligated to do it for everyone who asks?
• Formalize the opportunity by asking for an application form to be submitted for a specific event.
• Ensure your members have the appropriate training, and possess the good judgement required to represent the fire department.
• Have a senior member coordinate the event that is accountable to ensure the objectives are met.
• Know who is organizing the event. If it is not a fire department event, have the organizers been briefed as to what they can expect from the fire department? Make sure they have agreed to the ground rules laid out by the Fire Chief.
• Has the Fire Chief completed an appropriate Risk Management Assessment of the event?
• Be conscientious of facilities along the determined route that may be sensitive to the sound of sirens, particularly where there are animals.

Best practice has seen some of the following parameters adopted for drive-bys:

• Plan to go once a week, at the same time on a pre-determined route. For example, leave the fire hall every Saturday at 7.00 p.m. Parade will last for a maximum of 20 minutes.
• Offer to drive-by birthday parties on a Saturday afternoon and manage the events and locations accordingly.
• Establish age limits and event types that will be attended.
• If the decision is made not to offer the drive-bys, give some thought to stating your position on the fire hall and/or a community website.
• Consider the demands on your volunteer firefighters’ time. Make sure the amount of time requested includes time to ensure COVID-19 requirements are completed.

Final thought:  If it makes someone smile, why wouldn’t you do it?

Dave Ferguson
Associate
May 2020

Is your fire department charged with performing fire inspections but having difficulty meeting your targets?

Do you send inspectors or firefighters into buildings that are fully compliant or have only minor deficiencies?

If you answered yes to either of these questions, it’s time for change.

You can adopt innovative approaches to the delivery of fire safety programs that could meet your operational priorities using a risk-based approach to this common challenge. Through this lens, you can develop a fire prevention strategy that effectively provides comprehensive protection to all stakeholders.

The objectives of fire prevention should be identical to suppression priorities, prevent loss of life and damage to property and the environment. Achieving these desired outcomes should be done collaboratively with all parties, including the education of building owners and managers to recognize and accept their responsibility to provide an acceptable level of fire and life safety in their buildings.

Most building and fire codes clearly place the responsibility for compliance directly on the building owner. Instead of trying to build internal capacity to inspect building systems, it’s time to consider a fire prevention self-assessment program that shifts responsibility from the local government to the owners/occupiers of low hazard – low occupant load buildings that make up about 70% of all buildings in the community.

There are numerous steps involved in developing a sustainable self-assessment program some of which include:
• Identify a champion for the program
• Obtaining support and endorsement from local government
• Developing policies and operational guidelines
• Creating an inventory of building stock requiring inspection
• Conducting inspections of all properties to establish a base line
• Establishing frequency of inspection guidelines
• Creating the incentive for low-risk occupancies to self-assess through fees for service
• Invest in a data collection and management system for self-assessment reporting
• Liaise with property owner/manager associations to promote self-assessment

“A fire safety Self-Assessment is a report completed by a business that is not a fire safety inspection but is rather a means for a municipality to screen a low risk occupancy to determine how soon an actual fire safety inspection by a professional inspector is warranted”. T.A.C. Schober, LLB

The self-assessment concept is being used successfully in other disciplines and when implemented will result in better use of municipal resources, increased fire safety awareness and cost savings.

If your community is interested in getting started on self-assessment, we can help. Building Safety Fire Prevention Training is an online course specifically designed to educate building owners and managers of low hazard – low occupant load buildings about how to conduct a fire safety self-assessment. Get in touch with us to see how FireWise can help your community adopt an innovative fire inspection delivery system.

Bob Turley
Co-founder
May 2020

Fire departments, through their insurance provider, frequently have legal actions brought against them at fatal, injury events or significant dollar loss incidents. These incidents are not restricted exclusively to fires. FireWise has been called to provide support as an expert witness to the legal system on several files that have involve water damage claims where the actions of a fire department are questioned.

As an expert witness, it is important for FireWise to remember that we are working for the Court, not for one side or the other.  As an expert witness we must be objective and not advocate for one side or the other.  Once a statement of claim is made, and the action is brought against an AHJ and the fire service, we are engaged to write an opinion based on agreed assumed facts.  If it is evident there were mistakes made, procedures not followed, or other problems, as an expert witness we are obliged to include that in our opinion, which could be introduced into a Court proceeding.  In many situations, cases go to mediation where professional reports from fire investigators, engineers and other expert witness opinions are presented.  Many cases are resolved in this manner, and the fire department is not aware of the outcome.

Actions brought against a fire department generally are concerned with the strategies and tactics a fire department employs in attacking a fire.  Other factors will be looked at, such as water supply.  Did the fire department have enough water, or was it interrupted for any reason? Were there enough resources sent to the fire? Was mutual aid called early in the incident?  Was the incident commander able to get the incident organized and maintain command and control?  Were the department OG’s followed?  Were the AHJ’s policies concerning response time and an effective response force sent for what was reported to the fire dispatch centre? The difference here is what was reported versus what was found.

Policies of Council are important.  It is rare to have a policy of Council successfully challenged, but if it was not followed, that could be a problem.  OG’s are also important, as is personal discipline.  Firefighters are used to reacting to solve a problem.  Reacting to a problem is not always the best tactic, especially if there is discretionary time to think things through.

The good news is unless you are grossly negligent or willfully cause injury or loss, a firefighter may be embarrassed, but it has not been our experience for them to have an action brought against them.

If your fire department would like to discuss how you can protect yourself should a legal action be commenced, please get in touch with us.

Glen Sanders
Co-founder
April 2020

“Do More with Less” is a sentiment we are hearing a lot more of lately. While the words vary from community to community, the context is generally the same; taxpayers are unhappy with taxation levels, communities expect great services and there are many competing priorities that challenge decision makers. Community risk profiles are changing, and while fires represent a decreasing percentage of our calls, the implications of those fire events including life threat, dollar loss and liability exposures are increasing. Densification of urban neighborhoods in most jurisdictions represent more people, more activity, increasingly difficult access and challenging responses far beyond “just fires”. Aging populations and limited capacity of partner agencies increase non-traditional service expectations. Climate change is driving planning, preparation and response to floods, interface fires and other incidents that are occurring more and more frequently. And, despite all of this, fire services are being held to existing budget and resource levels, and in many cases, seeing cutbacks.

So, what’s to be done? I suspect that those who are using derivatives of “do more with less” are actually trying to say “help us” as they wrestle with the allocation of finite resources to support many diverse priorities. Fire services have a unique opportunity to lead development of sustainable service delivery strategies through creative use of our traditional approaches to resource sharing and building community capacity. These updated approaches have the potential to focus increasingly scarce resources on critical programs and ensure that our programs are meeting desired objectives.

Let’s take fire prevention inspections as an example. For most of us, getting to all inspectable properties in our communities is a stretch goal at best. We know that most fires are as a result of human activity, not building system failures. Canadian building and fire codes make it clear that responsibility for compliance with the various codes is the responsibility of the building owner. Instead of trying to build internal capacity to inspect building systems that are, for the most part, reasonably fire safe, how about investing in developing the capacity of building owners to manage those systems and occupant behaviours more effectively? Instead of creating a dependency on fire department interventions, we could deliver training to building owners, implement a quality assurance program and be a resource to building owners to jointly achieve improved fire safety outcomes. Building these trust relationships will benefit everyone, reduce the incidence of fires and make it far more likely that building owners will look to us as allies. Fire department resources can then be focused on supporting this program and dealing with outliers who need more focused compliance and enforcement efforts.

The fire service has a long history of developing innovative partnerships to deliver services of value to residents, businesses and others in our communities. Mutual aid agreements, regional training, professional associations and contract services are all examples. We have an incredible opportunity to build on those past successes and lead the development of innovative service delivery and community capacity building programs. This will allow us to focus our resources on those programs we must deliver and show our community the real value of the fire service.

FireWise can help you explore these and other opportunities to develop creative solutions for your fire protection needs. Drop in and see us at www.firewiseconsulting.com to see how we can help.

Ernie Polsom
Director
March 2020

Often during fire inspections, the building owner or manager will ask if the standpipe and hose system in their building is required. They will comment that they understand that the firefighters will not use the hose in the cabinet so why do they have to pay to have it inspected and tested? They raise a good point which I will try to address here.

The National Building and Fire Codes of Canada and most Provincial Codes are minimum standards that must be complied with, but the local authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) can call for more stringent requirements than the code, but not less than the code, unless an alternate solution has been accepted by the AHJ. For example, local government bylaws may require the installation of sprinkler systems in excess of the building code based on local conditions.

The AHJ is a defined term in the Fire Code as “Authority Having Jurisdiction which means the governmental body responsible for the enforcement of any part of this Code or the official or agency designated by that body to exercise such a function.”

There are three classes of standpipe and hose systems:

Class I Systems

In Class I Systems, 2-1/2″ (64mm) hose connections are provided for use by fire departments and those trained in handling heavy water streams. Class I systems provide the water supply for firefighting and are often located in the exit stairs or by a fire separation in the building. The fire department provides their own hose.

Class II Systems

In Class II Systems, 1-1/2″ (38mm) hose lines are provided in cabinets for use by trained building occupants until the fire department arrives.

The key wording is “for use by trained building occupants”. Originally Class ll systems were designed for use by the building occupants but due to changing material burning characteristics, many fire experts concur that unless individuals are equipped with personal protective equipment such as breathing apparatus, they should exit the building and leave the firefighting to the fire department.

Class III Systems

Class III Systems provide 1-1/2″ (38mm)] hose stations to supply water for use by trained building occupants and [2-1/2″ (64mm)] hose connections to supply a larger volume of water for use by fire departments and those trained in handling heavy water streams.

Building code requirement for standpipe and hose systems are reproduced in part below:

Standpipe Systems 

1) a standpipe system shall be installed in a building that is
a) more than 3 storeys in building height,
b) more than 14 m high measured between grade and the ceiling of the top storey, 
or 
c) not more than 14 m high measured between grade and the ceiling of the top storey

 Standpipe System Design 

• the design, construction, installation and testing of a standpipe system shall conform to NFPA 14, “Installation of Standpipe and Hose Systems.”

Free online access to view NFPA 14, is available here.

Many jurisdictions permit the removal of Type II standpipe hose (1 ½ hose only) on a case by case basis, with the written approval of the fire department.

Some jurisdictions allow the hose to be removed if the fire department will not use the hose provided in the cabinet, but the rest of the system must be maintained for use by the fire department.  In some cases, the AHJ allows the hose to be removed but require a portable fire extinguisher to be placed in the hose cabinet.

So, if the building owner wants to remove the hoses, my advice is to approach the AHJ and ask them to review the need for the standpipe and hose system in the building base on:

1. Will they use the hose in the cabinet in the event of a fire?
2. If the building was constructed today, would a standpipe system be required?
3. Do they expect residents to use the system in the event of a fire?
4. Do they recommend that the occupants be trained in the use of the system?

In conclusion, standpipe and hose systems provide vital fire protection but the use by building occupants is discouraged due to the hazardous atmosphere created by a fire.

Bob Turley
Co-founder, Program Developer
February 2020