Fire chief pitches purchases to improve firefighter safety

Luke Edwards, Post Contributor

There’s always room for improvement when it comes to cancer prevention.

So while a review turned up mostly good results in that department for the Norwich Fire and Protective Services, its director still wants to make some tweaks based on provincial recommendations to be even better.

“I’m happy to report that we are largely compliant,” Derek Van Pagee told Norwich councillors at a meeting on Aug. 12.

The department spent months this year reviewing its protocols against the Firefighter’s Cancer Prevention Checklist published by the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development. The checklist includes 83 points “aimed at protecting fire personnel from exposure to contaminants that may cause cancer or other occupational illnesses.”

Though mostly compliant, the review did identify some areas for improvement, leading Van Pagee to offer four recommendations to council. Even with an issue as important as personal health, Van Pagee said he tried to approach the recommendations with costs in mind.

The first recommendation is to request new hoods for the firefighters, which will allow them to put on a fresh hood when they exchange their air cylinder, as recommended. Van Pagee is proposing purchasing five extra hoods for each station next year, and an additional five the year following. All told, the cost to the township would be $7,000.

Van Pagee also recommended staff direct his team to explore ventilation improvements for the fire stations.

“We have CO (carbon monoxide) in our stations and then we have fans that will kick on and ventilate. According to the MOL checklist we are 10 per cent of what we should be ventilating,” he said.

The report said “truck bay/apparatus floor ventilation is currently not adequate for storing clean bunker gear on apparatus floor in Station 1, 2, 4.”

Van Pagee said there’s the potential for stations 1 and 2 to do “minor building renovations” to address the issues, or they could explore ventilation systems that could be installed.

Station 4 might be a little more tricky, he said, given the tight space there.

Other recommendations from Van Pagee included bringing in a third party to do a once-a-year decontamination deep cleaning for the apparatus. While the firefighters are dutiful in washing the trucks regularly, Van Pagee said the deep clean can be a challenge.

“I can ask firefighters to do it, and I’m being honest when I say it, they’re volunteer firefighters. They work, they’re not going to go and do a detailed clean inside the apparatus,” he said.

The cost for the deep clean would be about $100 per apparatus, Van Pagee said. They would also do one-off deep cleans if a truck responded to a particularly nasty fire where a lot of smoke got into the apparatus.

A final recommendation calls for the purchase of gear drying devices, though Van Pagee said it’s low priority and recommended allowing him to apply for grants to cover the cost of that purchase.

Councillors supported Van Pagee’s efforts, saying he’s always been careful with how the department spends taxpayer money.

“I think this is really important that we do everything we can to protect them,” said Coun. Lynne DePlancke.