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UPDATE – Op/Ed – Wife of Firefighter Concerned About Under Staffing In Valley, BC

Fraser Valley – In an opinion piece on Facebook and endorsed by the Chilliwack Firefighters Association, Shauna Macey-Slee is the wife of a North Vancouver Firefighter and sees the similarities in staffing, funding and public safety.

This comes after recent fires in Chilliwack including side by side Promontory homes, where civilians assisted firefighters with hoses (according to the Association).

Her opinion:

I’m wondering if people realize how understaffed our Chilliwack Fire Department is. Not only is the understaffing of halls putting the public at risk, our firefighters lives are at risk. Legally they cannot go into a building for rescue and to save lives when they only have three men/women on a truck, as WCB and NFPA standards require 4 fire fighters, using 2 in 2 out. Lives will be lost due to this, it’s only a matter of time. We are also greatly lacking in EMR training for our Chilliwack Fire services, again for our population, this is unacceptable. They aren’t dispatched to overdoses, stabbings, as well as other aid calls. I would urge you to write the city, our MLA’s and demand fully staffed halls, the way these firefighters have to operate is very dangerous and unfortunately out of their control due to the politics of it all. It takes some squeaky wheels to implement change, this is totally unacceptable! Our city is growing DAILY, have a look at the chart, and see how you feel knowing this.

Furthermore – as not to offend the volunteers and POC firefighters (I believe this is the biggest hurdle Chilliwack faces, as these are the people believing their services are adequate to offset Chilliwack’s shortage, I don’t want to diminish their countless hours they’ve given to our community, buuuttt, we are a city of over 100,000 ) We have two rivers, many ditches filled with water, yet we do not have swift water rescue through our fire department. All medical aid calls should have fire dispatched, this isn’t the case. We don’t have high angle rescue, don’t respond to many MVA’s, often run short in the Sardis hall. I don’t even know where to start re structure fires and the fact a truck needs 4 firefighters minimum to enter (god forbid people are trapped) Also, our emergency preparedness if a disaster were to ever happen…our closest mutual aid hall is Abbotsford, most other cities have aid within less than 30 km These POC and volunteers hold other jobs, the chances of them meeting at the hall and waiting for their comrades for far too many minutes just isn’t acceptable. I honestly don’t know statistically how many people have been adversely affected because of this, but can surely speculate it would be many! Chilliwack seems to have an inordinate number of full blown house fires, that don’t result in structures being saved…again, one can draw their own conclusions as to why. Also, our emergency preparedness if a disaster were to ever happen…our closest mutual aid hall is Abbotsford, most other cities have aid within less than 30 km…when there is a disaster, Abby won’t have the manpower to share.

Chilliwack Firefighters Association 2019 Presentation

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