The volume of calls-for-service at the Duncan fire department has almost doubled in the last three years, fire chief Landis Carmichael told city council at its meeting on Oct. 7.
Carmichael said that prior to 2021, the department averaged 200 to 300 calls-for-service each year. That has increased to 458 in 2021, 542 in 2022, and 652 in 2023.
Carmichael said the department is currently projected to have up to 800 calls-for-service in 2024.
The Duncan fire department deals with callouts that range from structure fires, to motor-vehicle incidents, acute medical emergencies, hazardous materials incidents, technical rescue, public assists and more.
In the second quarter of 2024 (April through June), the total calls for service at the fire department jumped from 146 in the same time period last year to 203 this year, which is an increase of 39 per cent.
“The increased call volume is straining on our on-call firefighters,” he said. “We’ve also had a 154 per cent increase in duty-officer calls (from 39 to 99) which is contributing to the 40 per cent overall increase in call volume comparing this year’s second quarter to last year’s second quarter.”
Duty-officer calls represent times when, based on input provided by callers, fire dispatch did not page out the entire Duncan fire department, but rather paged out just the DFD’s duty officer, who attends to administrative tasks and incidents in addition to the officer's normal duties.
Carmichael said the department is currently challenged by the increasing number of duty-officer callouts and a diminished capacity in the department of members capable of serving as duty officers.
“We’re currently working our way through ways to address the influx of duty-officer calls and plan to have this finalized and ready to present in the next quarterly report,” Carmichael said. “On a positive note, we’ve had our five new recruits graduate and are now responding to calls, and that’s quite an influx in our staffing.”
The Duncan fire department currently consists of more than 25 firefighters, eight officers and three chief officers.
Carmichael said many fire departments in B.C. are currently challenged by the volume of medical-first response calls for service that typically amount to 60 per cent or more of their total call volume.
However, he said that in 2023, medical-first response calls in Duncan represented just 18 per cent of total call outs for his department.
“The City of Duncan has set a level of service for medical-first response calls at a level that results in the fire department responding to only the most serious medical emergencies,” Carmichael said. “If that level of service is increased in the future, the department will be challenged to provide that elevated level of service while utilizing a paid-on-call model.”
