2008 Fire Master Plan - City of St. Catharines

FIRERESCUEFloodingMinor water leaks/spills can be contained using water vacuums. Moderate interior flooding can be handled by CityWorks Personnel if cause is sewer related. Other causes are likely to be handled by private insurance/contractors. Nosubmersible pumping equipment exists in our Fire Service Fleet but we do have at least 1 portable drafting pump.Marijuana Grow OpsPersonnel are trained at the Awareness level only. An Standard Operating Guidelines (SOG) is in place in order toassist firefighting crews that respond to structure fires that are as a result of a grow operations. In summary once itis determined that there are no longer any risks and there no lives in danger the scene is passed on to the Police forthere investigation.The City Building Department will put an order to close and to remedy before allowing anyone to occupy thepremises. Fire Prevention is kept informed but at this point the building department is the lead agency for remedialaction.Clandestine drug labs are to be treated as a Haz-Mat incident and there is an SOG in place. The OPP has a specialteam to oversee the removal and clean up of meth labs. In the event of a Hazmat incident as a result of a meth labcrews can call upon the private sector, or the Regional Hazmat team for assistance.Water Rescue Lake Ontario and Inland WaterwaysWe respond at an Operations level and all of our firefighters receive regular training depending on theseason (Summer/winter).The following are examples of our waterways and the type of responses that we carry out.• Lake Ontario – 2 pumps/boats, 1 aerial, 1 command vehicle• Inland (Canal) – 1 pump/boat, 1 rescue, 1 aerial, 1 command vehicle• Inland (Martindale Pond) – 2 pumps, 1 boat, 1 rescue, 1 aerial, 1 command vehicle• Inland (12 Mile creek) – 1 pump, 1 rescue, 1 command vehicle• Ice Water Rescue – same response criteria as water rescue• Land Based Water Rescue – (Canal, Ponds, Pools etc.)Hazardous MaterialsOur personnel are trained at the awareness level and we are in the process of training some of our members to theTechnician level. Once this is achieved the remainder of our fire fighting staff will be trained to the Operations level.If required we can depend on two organizations to assist us in Hazmat situations, one is the private sector and theother is the Niagara Regional CBRN Team.The agreement with these private companies is that they will never send any invoices to the Municipality but ratherdeal with businesses, insurance companies or individuals responsible for the spill. The other group available is theNiagara Regional Hazmat Team which comprises of Technicians from Fire Services in all 12 Niagara Municipalities,Niagara Regional Police, Niagara Emergency Medical Services, and the Niagara Regional Public Health Department.If requested the Team can respond with all services or be specific to one group only i.e. Fire Services Technicians only.This group is dispatched from our own Communication Center. A normal response to a Hazmat incident would be a 10man response with 2 pumps, 1 aerial, and 1 command vehicle.Unknown 911 CallsWould have a response by all three emergency services (Fire, Police, EMS). Police are the lead agency and the otherswould stand by until their arrival. The normal response for such a call would be 1 pump with three (3) firefighters.40ST. CATHARINES, FIRE SERVICES