Fire Master Plan heads back to staff

By Chris Jones/The Oshawa Express

Oshawa’s Fire Master Plan has once again been sent back to staff as delegates tell council they’re concerned with the number of fire trucks downtown.

City council recently held a special meeting to discuss the city’s Draft Fire Master Plan, which was put together by Dillon Consulting.

The new Fire Master Plan was put together after a report from Oshawa Fire Chief Derrick Clark in 2019 showed Oshawa Fire Services was close to completing the original plan ahead of schedule.

The original Fire Master Plan was passed in 2013 and intended to run through 2023.

However, Clark’s five-year review showed 27 of the 31 recommendations within the plan were either complete or in progress.

Dillon Consulting, the company hired by the city for both iterations of the Fire Master Plan, presented their findings at the meeting.

Dillon representatives Steve Thurlow and Claudio Covelli explained council had several requests in regards to the new plan.

These requests included that it be based on a 10-year analysis, basing forecasts on all levels of growth; that the report include a review of fire service levels and response times for the next 10 years; and analysis for a future Fire Station 7.

Council was then presented with six options moving forward for the appropriate level of fire suppression services in Oshawa.

– Option one: Strategies to reduce existing dispatch time and turnout time would be implemented, and would not require any further financial investment.

– Option two: A rapid response apparatus would be added to Fire Station 1 downtown. It would include a minimum of two firefighters staffing it at all times. The implementation of the second option would require an annual financial investment of $1.63 million, and capital costs of $640,000.

– Option three: Would add another fire truck to Station 1, and four multi-role firefighters. This would cost the city an annual $2.72 million, and capital costs of $250,000.

– Option four: Includes an analysis of 10-year community growth, as well as a proposed location for Station 7. This strategy would require the purchase of a new pumper/rescue apparatus, as well as the hiring of 20 additional firefighters. The annual investment would be $2.72 million, with capital costs at $7.45 million.

– Option five: Also includes the analysis of 10-year community growth, but also proposed locations for a future Station 8. Much like option four, it requires the purchase of another pumper/rescue apparatus, as well as the hiring of 20 additional firefighters. This would require an annual investment of $2.72 million, and capital costs of $7.45 million.

– Option six: The final option illustrates fire station relocations, additional stations, additional fire suppression apparatuses, and the additional firefighters which would be needed by the city. This option would require an annual investment of $13.58 million, as well as $41.45 million in capital costs from the city.

As previously reported by The Oshawa Express, local firefighters prepared their own report, which stated a second truck was needed at the downtown station.

The station previously had a second truck, but it was moved to another station.

Since then, according to Oshawa Professional Fire Fighters Association President Peter Dyson, response times in downtown have increased.

He also notes when a second truck is needed downtown, it has to come from another station, which then takes resources from another neighbourhood.

Dillon attempts to address the issue in option two with a rapid response unit.

According to Thurlow, it isn’t uncommon, and is even a core component of the Vancouver Fire Department.

For Ward 2 Councillor Jane Hurst, the history of the idea shows it can work.

“I think past history is a very good guiding principal going forward,” she says.

Ward 1 City Councillor Rosemary McConkey wasn’t entirely sold on the idea, and asked about the rapid response vehicle.

According to Thurlow, it’s a smaller version of the Rescue 25’s currently used by firefighters in Oshawa, which the city does not own. Thurlow explains the vehicle is somewhat like an ambulance in that it carries much of the same equipment but wouldn’t be able to carry a patient.

Dyson, who also spoke to council, stands by the plan from the firefighters and disagrees with the plan from Dillon, citing he believes it doesn’t have a clear path forward.

He says firefighters can’t be indecisive, and by failing to provide services that developers and residents have already paid for, the city is failing to keep residents safe.

“Oshawa can either have an effective or adequate level of safety… and right now, it does not,” he says.

For Dyson, making the community safe means having enough firefighters, and the city doesn’t need more options, it needs clear and decisive action. This starts with having another fire truck in Station 1, he says.

“By putting the fire truck back at Station 1, not only will downtown be safer, but the whole city will be safer,” he says, adding this means other resources won’t be drawn downtown during an emergency.

When asked by Ward 5 City and Regional Councillor Brian Nicholson what impact having a second truck downtown would have, Dyson explained that a second truck would make it safer for other stations which would be left vulnerable by sending out their equipment.

Gerald Bonchek, who lost his daughter and two grandchildren in a fire in January 2018, says community safety should prevail, and response times in Oshawa need to improve, especially downtown.

“Station 1 is by far the busiest station in the city, and for the life of me I don’t understand why there is only one response vehicle at Station 1,” he says.

Eventually, a motion was passed unanimously by council to refer the presentations and delegations to council back to staff and to be returned to council before budget deliberations.