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PA fire chief reflects on 2015

Dec 31, 2015 | 5:50 AM

It’s been a busy year for the Prince Albert Fire Department (PAFD).

Fire chief Jason Everitt said their overall call volume increased this year by at least 100 calls. He also noted a reported a hike in structure fires, vehicle fires and wildland fires in Prince Albert for 2015.

“From our response perspective we have noticed an increase in our overall calls volume, which is something that we typically see in cycles,” he said. “We are at about 1100 calls so far, so that is a considerable increase over the last year.”

Everitt said structure fires saw an 11 per cent increase with 64 in total. He said vehicle fires increased by 20 per cent and wildland fires also increased by 11 per cent in 2015.

“We are looking at that and trying to figure out what are the causes behind that,” he said.

On a more positive note Everitt said they did experience a substantial decrease in false fire alarm calls compared to 2014.

 “We attribute that into all of our work into the prevention and inspection division working with different landlords and rental properties, to make sure that they have the proper alarm systems in place and they are properly maintained, as well as the education of tenants in those areas,” said Everitt. “So that is a great start to see, is a decrease in those sorts of numbers.”

Response times are another continued area of concern for the PAFD. Everitt said the time it takes to respond to a call can be greatly dictated by the alarm’s location, the time of day and the time of year.

“Traffic plays a large role in that. Typically we see large volumes of traffic, even if the alarm location is closer, and we can have a delayed response, at time on scene, just because of the difficulty of getting through traffic,” said Everitt.

“As the city expands, definitely it is more of a challenge, to try and get to some of the outlining areas within the mandated time frame. But you know we are doing our best and we are still able to get the job done, and we are still able to provide a high level of service in the community.”

2015 also made history for the PAFD when they welcomed their first female firefighter to the department.

“We were fortunate enough this year to extend an affirmative employment offer to firefighter Mallory Prefontaine,” said Everitt. “She did very well in our recruit competition and we were fortunate enough to be able to extend an opportunity to her. She is the first female firefighter in the history of the Prince Albert Fire Department.”

Prefontaine joined the local department for a nine month term on Nov. 30 to fill in for an absence of one of the department’s full time staff.

 

With files from Tomorrow During Region at Noon with Don Mitchell.

 

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