2008 Fire Master Plan - City of St. Catharines

FIRERESCUE6.1 Em e rg e n c y Response Pro t o c o l sThe manner in which we recall our Officers and or Firefighters is through the following notification process:Limited number of off – duty firefighters carry recall pagers on a voluntary basis. When required by IncidentCommand, the dispatcher activates the pagers and requests a number of firefighters and officers to call in to thealarm room. When enough staff responds, the dispatcher tells anyone else that calls in that they have enough staffcoming in. If not enough staff call in, the dispatcher will call all those on the recall list and/or call off-duty firefightersin order to get enough staff.The frequency and our ability to resource multiple or simultaneous emergencies with their associated IncidentCommand issues including large scale incidents have not been a regular occurrence. Many structure fires requirean extra pump or two in order to control the fire and provide for relief of firefighters on scene. We will maintain aminimum response of 13 firefighters at every structure fire.6.2 Em e rg e n c y Response CategoriesThe following responses are what is programmed in our computer assisted dispatch in order to assist us in decidingwhich vehicle is responsible to respond to which type of call. We have included the vehicle type and the numberof firefighters that are responding for each emergency. The Ontario Fire Marshal (OFM) and the National FireProtection Association (NFPA) recommend 4 firefighters on a single pump to begin any type of interior firefighting or rescue.Currently, St Catharines staffs all it’s pumps with 3 man pump crews due to limited staffing levels. This staffingarrangement significantly impacts the first arriving pump crews ability to effect any type of limited rapid rescueor limited interior firefighting.Interior Fire Fighting and RescueOur normal response to any fires will find a response of 4 Officers and 9 firefighters to most occupancy (3 pumps,1 aerial, and 1 command vehicle). Institutional or high rise occupancies over 6 stories get a higher level of initialresponse when we add either another aerial or pump to the response. Many discussions have occurred over the yearson our ability to meet the FMO 13+10 rule and we are meeting it 96% of the time. The concern is the time it is takingus to have 4 firefighters on the scene so we are able to begin fire suppression or rescue. In most cases this initialresponse is critical to saving a life or controlling a fire.A crew of four is required to make a safe initial attack on a fire, with a crew of two working inside the burningstructure and a backup crew of two standing by to assist as necessary. This is known as the CanadianOccupational Safety and Health “2 In/2 Out’ regulation.38ST. CATHARINES, FIRE SERVICES