HALIFAX – When firefighters are tackling a blaze and need additional resources, a computerized system automatically chooses which station is closest to the fire and dispatches them.
With the overnight closure of the Macdonald Bridge for the Big Lift Project, the head of Halifax Professional Fire Fighters Association is growing concerned.
“The dispatch people that work there are not allowed to modify that. They’re not allowed to think on their feet and say, ‘wait a sec, that bridge is closed, I’m going to send this other truck.’ They have to select and send whichever truck that computer picks,” Jim Gates told Global News.
On March 2, a bus caught fire on Almon Street in Halifax and an aerial apparatus was needed. Gates says the computer didn’t choose to send the correct resources.
“The computer picked the truck that was the furthest away,” he said.
Normally, the truck would have came from the King Street fire station in Dartmouth, but with the closure of the Macdonald Bridge, the truck had to go through Dartmouth and over the MacKay Bridge.
“Our Deputy Chief put out a memo on the 23rd of February to all the firefighting personnel that the modifiers had been changed. And we had the fire on the 2nd of March and I’m saying they weren’t changed, because if they were changed, they wouldn’t have picked that truck,” Gates said.
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In fact, he says the equipment the crews requested was available at the Highfield Park Fire Station, located closer to the MacKay Bridge. It’s the same station the responding fire truck had to drive past on the night of the fire.
“It took almost…15 minute response for that apparatus to get to the scene, whereas if the apparatus out of Highfield Park was selected, it would have been much sooner,” Gates said.
At least one city councillor calls the mix-up alarming and is concerned about getting all the correct information, whether it be about this or about the proposal to close fire stations in the Halifax area.
“My concern is, if we don’t have the right information, there could be other situations like this. In my area here in Hubbards, it’s 25 minutes from the nearest fire station to the county line. That’s 25 minutes doing 60 km per hour. There will be no houses left to save if we don’t have the right information to make the right decisions about fire protection,” said Matt Whitman.
Global News did reach out to the city for comment on the union’s concerns, but no one was available for an interview.
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