City firefighters were busier every way and everywhere in Barrie last year, according to their 2022 annual report.
The Barrie Fire and Emergency Service report was included in Wednesday night’s general committee meeting, although it generated no discussion by councillors.
“We are seeing an increase across the city in all call types,” said Barrie Fire Chief Cory Mainprize, “but no particular call type has changed by more than one per cent.
“We’re just seeing an overall request for service across the whole city increasing equally,” he added. “Also, we (essentially) haven’t seen a change in the number of calls by ward. It also hasn’t changed by more than one per cent.”
What has increased, from 2021 to 2022, is emergency calls, to 10,402 last year from 8,772 in 2021, an increase of 18.6 per cent. Barrie Fire also handled 777 non-emergency calls last year, for a total of 11,179. Of that 2022 total, 7,935 were medical incident calls.
“We always say it’s a value-added service. We don’t staff for medical calls, we staff for fire incidents,” Mainprize said. “When we look at the statistics, the number of people that we save or have a direct impact to them, is actually more in medical calls than all of our other calls combined.”
Medical calls were 77 per cent of the incidents Barrie Fire responded to last year, a slight increase from 76.5 per cent in 2021.
“The number of people that we provide CPR, defibrillation, naloxone, symptom assist can have a dramatic impact on their health,” Mainprize said.
All parts of Barrie are not equal, however, when it comes to emergency incidents to which city firefighters must respond.
Ward 2, which includes downtown Barrie, had the most emergency incidents last year with 2,706, followed by Ward 8 with 1,635 and Ward 4 with 1,041.
“A lot of requests for service follow behaviour and medical status, and we have a lot of medicals in that area,” Mainprize said of Ward 2. “There’s a significant population that requires a higher level of service for those who reside in that area than any other area of the city.
“The population demographic is very similar for the northern section of Ward 8 as it is to Ward 2,” the chief added. “Ward 8 encompasses what I would consider a fair bit of the downtown area, the older core of the city. Probably 75 per cent of the calls in Ward 8 are north of Big Bay Point Road.”
But as Barrie grows in people, streets and homes, so does the fire department's ability to respond.
This year’s city operating budget includes pre-approval for 20 new Barrie firefighters so the recruitment process for these positions can begin in late 2023, in preparation for the late 2024, early 2025 opening of Fire Station No. 6. There’s no budget impact this year, but the pre-approval of firefighters would result in pressure on the 2024 tax levy of about 0.68 per cent, or $2.1 million.
This year’s city capital budget contains $5.6 million for the new Station No. 6, at the southwest corner of Prince William Way and Mapleview Drive.
“It will make a significant improvement to response times, especially in the southeast area,” Mainprize said. “Our goal is to always strive to be on scene, a travel time of less that six minutes, 90 per cent of the time.
“Ward 10, especially south of Mapleview (Drive), and east of Yonge Street, that is a challenge for us to make it over there within our recommended response times," he added.
Mainprize said Barrie Fire faces other challenges as well. Inflation is impacting the cost to build the new fire station, he said, and it’s costing more to purchase and maintain equipment and apparatus, along with personal protective gear.
“It’s not uncommon to see price increases of 30 to 50 per cent on some of the materials and supplies that we’re buying,” he said.
New training requirements to meet provincial legislation are also a strain, specifically those involving technical rescue.
Barrie Fire provides an all-hazard response to mitigate emergencies including fires, hazardous materials incidents, medical emergencies and technical rescues such as rope rescue, confined space rescue, ice and water rescue, trench rescue, and automobile extrication.
Barrie Fire has 187 full-time staff and five part-timers in five branches — administration, operations, fire prevention and public education, communications, professional standards, and emergency management
Barrie has five fire stations — Station No. 1, at 155 Dunlop St. W., has a pumper, a rescue and an aerial truck; Station No. 2, at 15 Bell Farm Rd., has a rescue truck; Station No. 3, at 340 Big Bay Point Rd., has an aerial truck; Station No. 4, at 250 Ardagh Rd., has a pumper truck; and Station No. 5, at 360 King St., has a rescue truck.
Its communications branch dispatches services to Barrie and 20 other municipalities, at a total of 62 fire stations, serving almost one million people. The communications branch answers the phone in less than eight seconds, 99 per cent of the time.
