Strathcona Fire Fighters In the News

Firefighters burning out

by Terri Kemball
Wednesday December 08, 2004

Sherwood Park News — Strathcona’s firefighters are exhausted.
Fire Chief Laird Burton confirms the integrated emergency services department needs more staff to respond to increasing medical, rescue and fire calls in the growing community.  Council, which controls the purse strings to the $10-million emergency services budget, wants to ensure the department is manned appropriately.  But even though everyone agrees Strathcona needs more firefighters, the existing ones will have to deal with the demands of the job for a couple more months.  “We have come this far and if council asks us to hold the line, we will hold the line until we can hold it no longer,” said Derek Davies, president of Local 2461 Strathcona County Firefighters. But, he adds, “We’re at our wit’s end.”At a budget meeting last Thursday, council learned that Burton, who manages Strathcona County Emergency Services, isn’t in a position to request more staff at this time due to the ambulance transition, which will see the county’s pre-hospital care fall under the auspices of Capital Health on April 1.
Capital Health is working with Strathcona to have the county operate its existing system on a contract basis. Provincial dollars are expected to flow to the municipality when the deal is signed, but the financial impact is not yet known.
As a result, the department’s overtime (it includes some health-related situations), which topped out at $680,000 in 2003, is expected to climb another $180,000 this year. That’s 54 per cent more than the authorized overtime budget of $560,000.
“We firmly believe as a membership that the substantial overtime budget speaks for itself,” said Davies of the firefighters’ workload.
Although overtime is voluntary, Davies says firefighters feel an unspoken obligation to their colleagues and the community to help.
“Our members are exhausted from trying to maintain that obligation,” he said.  Davies notes a firefighter may get called out at 3 a.m. for a few hours, and then begin a regularly scheduled shift immediately after.  Mayor Cathy Olesen and a number of councillors expressed concern about burnout before the ambulance transition plan kicks in.  “People appreciate what you do and I want to ensure you have the tools to do it,” Coun. Brent Jewell told Burton.  “That’s our issue too,” Burton responded. “Are we under pressure? Of course, but we will work the best way we can with the union and the health authority, and hopefully we can get the pressure off.’  Coun. Peter Wlodarczak, who ran the RCMP detachment a few years ago, told Burton he would “support anything reasonable to get staff where it should be.”Burton confirmed it’s not a matter of if the department needs more firefighters, but when and how many.“We want to make sure we give council a good business plan depending on what’s required,” he added.
Davies suggests a way to remove pressure from firefighters is to build the the new fire station slated to go in near the RCMP detachment.“They talked about building a station and that got put on the back-burner,” he said. “It’s not in the future right now.”
He notes the station would require a contingent of 24 new firefighters.“If they’re not going to build that station, that doesn’t change the fact that these men are needed,” noted Davies.Burton says a service level review of the department, which is occurring in conjunction with the Capital Health transition, will help determine the timing of a new fire hall.Although Burton indicated the department is OK for the next month or so, Jewell remains concerned. “It’s a stressful job to start with,” he said. “You add that stress into a significant amount of overtime and you will start to see burnout.” Jewell hopes council can deal with the department’s needs in this budget cycle, which is solidified in April/May before the tax notices are sent out. Burton has indicated the same intention.
While Strathcona County Emergency Services is facing pressure today, the municipality has been expanding its department along with the community. In the past four years, it’s hired 25 firefighters, an increase of 54 per cent.

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