2008 Fire Master Plan - City of St. Catharines

FIRERESCUEFire Services has endeavored to send personnel to the Ontario Fire College located in Gravenhurst, Ontario. Thecollege offers many courses, in particular the Company Officer Training Program. Although some members haveattended the College staffing shortages have made it very difficult to continue to send fire fighters to the College.However an initiative has been developed to deliver specific components of the officer training curriculum in StCatharines by approved facilitators. This is accomplished by our involvement in the Associate Instructor Programthrough the Ontario Fire College.This certification allows instructors to teach Fire College courses outside the confines of the college at their owndepartments and abroad.7.1 Spe c i a l iz e d Tr a i n i n gThe role of the Fire Service has evolved tremendously over the past ten years to include responsibilities that requireexceptional training and certification in order to handle specialized equipment, procedures and evolutions. Some ofthese specialty subjects would include Technical Rope Rescue, Hazmat, Swift and Ice Water Rescue to name a few.The tremendous commitment of time, research, certification and training combined with the need to provide on shifttraining is necessitating a change in how training has been traditionally done. A full-time fire fighter/shift instructorposition would be developed for each of the 4 platoons to provide additional on duty training. By taking thisapproach the Department would be able to provide consistent on duty training that is being developed and deliveredby a modified Training Division. The four fire fighter/shift instructors would each be paid 14% more ( samedifferential as a Training Instructor ) for a total cost of approximately 50% of one new full time Training Instructorposition. The shift instructors will be able to provide training during non traditional times that are outside of a TrainingDivisions normal Monday to Friday schedule.7.2 Tr a i n i n g FacilitiesThe Department has it own designated training facility to train and develop staff.In the late 1970’s a Training facility was built on Renown Road, under the Burgoyne Bridge. This training tower offerslimited live fire training to the staff. Live fire training is vitally important to ensure firefighter safety preparation andhigh levels of service to the community. Located next to Twelve mile creek, firefighters are provided the opportunityto draft water and practice their pump operation skills. The tower is also utilized for practicing the many techniquesinvolved in fighting interior structure fires. As well, being 4 stories in height it does allow for high rise fire fightingtraining to be conducted.St. Catharines Fire Services have a training room located at 64 Geneva St. This room is used for delivery of trainingin a classroom setting. The room is extremely inadequate in that it has very limited space, is poorly ventilated which isnot a conducive atmosphere for comfort. The training room also doubles as the municipalities Emergency OperationsCentre, where members of the Community control Group convene in the event of a major emergency.In the past year, our department has been very fortunate to develop a partnership with a business in the community.In the spring of 2008 an extremely exciting partnership opportunity came to fruition with General Motors of Canada,Plant 2 on Glendale Ave. A large area that is no longer used was offered to the Training Division for the purposes ofteaching firefighter survival. Fire fighter survival is basically set up much like an obstacle course, teaching fire fightersmany techniques to rescue themselves in the event they are caught in an extremely dangerous situation which theymight be encountering unexpectedly.General Motors not only donated the use of this facility but also went to the expense of providing the many propsrequired for this very intense training.Also located at General Motors is the Flashover Unit that St.Catharines owns jointly with Welland, Niagara Fallsand Fort Erie. The flashover unit is a large shipping container, professionally designed and built for firefighters toexperience the effects of a live flashover under controlled conditions.52ST. CATHARINES, FIRE SERVICES