ALNWICK / HALDIMAND
Fire & Rescue
434 Edwardson Road
P.O. Box #176
Grafton, Ontario K0K 2G0
Phone: 905-349-3496 Fax: 905-349-3496
Email:
Report on Fire Protection Services for the municipality
For the year 2013
To the Council, Residents of Alnwick/Haldimand and Alderville First Nations
This report will outline some of the accomplishments and benchmarks reached by Alnwick/Haldimand Fire & Rescue over the past year, these goals have been reached with the tremendous support of Council, generosity of the general public, benefactors such as Trans Canada Pipelines, Grafton Legion and the hard work of our Firefighters.
New Provincial legislation was recently in discussion that carbon monoxide detectors are to be installed in all homes as per Bill 20, further information will be available when the Bill is passed.
To give you an overview the department consists of three stations, located in Roseneath, in Centreton and in Grafton. You have a compliment of 46 firefighters between the three stations with a total of ten emergency vehicles to serve the community.
Call Volume:
The department responded to a total of 272 incidents in 2013 compared to 270 incidents in 2012, the calls this year are as follows:
12 fires involved buildings and structures (4 % of the total calls)
40 fires involving forest, bush, fields, grass and garbage (14 % of the total calls)
53 vehicle fires and accidents (19 % of total calls)
110 emergency medical calls and assists to EMS crews (41 % of the total calls)
2 ice or water rescue (0.7 % of the total calls)
28 calls for hydro wires down and gas leaks (10% of our total calls)
22 false alarms or perceived emergency calls (8% of our total calls)
5 miscellaneous calls including mutual aid to other departments.
Our greatest concern is the 40 (14% of our call volume) forest and grass fires that some are generated through mischief or lack of care taken by the fire supervisor. This is of great cost to the ratepayers of the municipality and inconsiderate to our firefighters. There is a procedure for obtaining fire burn permits, failure to comply with the provisions of By-Law # 95-2001 may result in a fine. Please call the Township office during normal business hours to obtain your permit. Local calls 905-349-2822 extension #25 long distance 1-888-685-1464
Fire Prevention and Education;
Our department is totally committed to fire prevention, we do this through inspections of properties, particularly those used for assembly buildings such as schools, arenas or gathering places within the municipality.
We inspect property by requests or complaints received from concerned citizens and for licensed occupancies such as group homes and child care facilities.
Another major part of our fire prevention program is public education, we achieve this through exposure at many public functions and educational seminars such as,
Visitations to our Elementary schools through Fire Prevention week in October
Visits to campgrounds and trailer parks during camp fire season
Municipal Canada Day parade
Alderville First Nations Day Care
Harvest Festival in Grafton
Golden Beach Resort car show and shine
Roseneath Fall Fair
Northumberland Beef Producers barbeque
Many group presentations through out the year
These events provide an opportunity to discuss the care and maintenance of smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, the importance of having a dwelling escape plan and meeting place in the event of a fire, hand out pamphlets and material that promote life safety and display some of our materials recovered from fires to illustrate the loss of personal items due to fire. Popular events outside provide the ratepayers of our municipality to view some of the apparatus and equipment that is available on the department, If anyone has an event that will help our efforts to promote fire safety please contact us.
Marine Rescue;
The marine unit is currently operating and stationed in Rice Lake, but has the capability to move anywhere in the municipality it is needed. In 2013 additional equipment was added to enhance our rescue capabilities and of course continuing training programs in water and ice rescue. One event that we participate in with the marine unit is the Dragon Boat event in Cobourg to support cancer research.
New (to us) vehicle;
This year we took possession of an aerial apparatus for Station #1 in Grafton, this unit became surplus equipment to the Town of Cobourg and, will replace the old pumper that was past its time and did not meet current requirements. This new truck allows our firefighters to reach difficult heights, and provide a safer environment for the firefighters.
Mutual Aid;
Our department is a member of the Northumberland County Mutual Aid that provides for additional apparatus and nearly 300 firefighters to assist in any major event and to support our own firefighters if required. This year our department sent three members to a specialized training course in confined space and high angle rescue offered through the Mutual Aid program. All the departments in the county sent a couple of members so this will provide an expert team in the event that we have a major mishap in our municipality.
Equipment;
This year we purchased tracks for the UTV that will allow access into the forest area, with the recent storms, the tracks have made a huge difference in response time.
We also updated our air packs (SCBA) to be compliant with NFPA regulations in 2013.
Department events;
We had four new member recruits graduate from the Eastern Ontario Fire Academy in 2013, congratulations to all of them.
With the decommissioning of Port Hope Communications dispatching most of Northumberland County will be dispatched by Cobourg Police Services.
Prescribed burns;
The spring of 2014 a private forestry management firm and our department will participated in burning off specific areas of the Northumberland County to promote the growth of certain plants in the forest.
Association commitments;
The Firefighter Associations also provide financial assistance to victims of major fires or involved in mishaps.
Some of the additional equipment on the fire apparatus have been purchased through the Associations.
Agreements in place;
We provide additional fire services to the County of Northumberland more particularly the Northumberland County Forest who in turn provide a standby fee for services, supply some of our forest fire equipment and share some of the costs of training our firefighters to a level of competency in that field. We also provide Alderville First Nations with fire services and inspections in their community.
Commendations;
On behalf of the Residents of the Municipality of Alnwick/Haldimand, I thank the members of Council, Firefighters, Chief Officers and Fire Prevention Officers of the department for a productive and successful year. It is our ambition and strategy for 2014 to promote “Life Safety” and reduce fire losses in our community through continued training, fire prevention and public education to reach this goal.