The City of Saint John spends about $25 million on its fire department annually, adding another million in this year’s budget, but council has a new report that makes several recommendations on creating further efficiencies within the department.
A new report born out of a review of the fire department by Pomax Consulting made eight recommendations, which include investments in fire prevention, better asset management, governance and organization of the fire department, and the permanent closure of the Millidgeville station.
Fire Chief Kevin Clifford said he is pleased with the report, but many of the recommendations will require a deeper look with all parties at the table.
He is particularly interested in the recommendation about fire prevention, which was the first. The report said all firefighters should become fire prevention officers.
“Fire Prevention and Investigation should become part of an overall fire service prevention initiative, reporting to the Platoon Chiefs. Where specialists – currently, the Fire Prevention Officers – would assist the Platoon Chiefs, with coordination of prevention activities by firefighters while also addressing the more major fire risk issues in Saint John that require the intervention of a qualified investigator,” the report states.
Clifford said in an interview Wednesday that “if there is a chance to provide greater guidance and direction for our community with respect to the safety of our properties, we should embrace that.”
He said having on-the-ground crews involved in fire prevention is going to be really important.
Union concerns
The firefighters’ union, Local 771 Saint John Firefighters, has some concerns about the recommendations in the Pomax report.
It said it “strongly disagrees with any recommendations within the report that go against NFPA standards.”
“Industry standards are created for a purpose, which is to ensure both community and firefighter safety,” it said in a statement online.
It took particular issue with the permanent disposal and closure of Station 8, which served Millidgeville and closed in 2020 when the city was in a dire financial position.
“There has been no evidence that the closure of station 8 at the end of 2020 has resulted in an unacceptable increased risk to the city or station 8’s pre-2020 response area,” the report reads. “Current risk can be reduced throughout the city by implementing the range of recommendations found in this document.”
The union said in light of the growth in the city, the Millidgeville station should be reopened.
“We strongly believe a vibrant part of our city that is continuing to grow at a very fast pace, coupled with various target hazards (the Regional Hospital) warrants staffing the communities fire station,” the statement said.
It also said Station 5, which serves the north end of the city and now Millidgeville, only has four firefighters stationed there. It said it not only responds to citywide fire calls but also works in a challenging area for fires.
In August, Station 5, among other crews, responded to three vacant building fires in a week in the north end.
However, Clifford said it has been only four firefighters at the station for about a decade, and they redeploy resources as necessary.
“We manage that quite well,” he said. “Every fire chief would like to have more resources, but at the same time there is a limit on how much the community can afford.”
The union, though, says the Pomax report focuses too heavily on the probabilities of events.
“While the Pomax report wants to solely discuss the probabilities of incidents happening in these areas, they are overlooking the consequences of having increased response times and reduced staffing when an emergency does occur,” the statement reads.
The fire department has recently battled a massive industrial fire that spanned more than 48 hours and required more than 80 firefighters.
It also responded to a house fire on Charlotte and Harding streets in early October that required several crews and more than three dozen firefighters.
The consequences
The impact is something public safety committee chair David Hickey would have liked to see more of in the report.
He said from the data they have, which he said he would also like to see improved, the most likely fire, or probable fire, is a structure fire.
“What I don’t think it assesses enough is what the consequences to the community,” he said. “We had just finished, when we were addressing this, we had just finished a report on the American Iron and Metal (AIM) fire and its impact to Saint John.
“For nearly a day and half, our whole city was shut down because of this fire.”
In fact, the city – and any other communities that could smell or see smoke – was under a shelter-in-place order while the fire raged.
Only weeks later, at the Charlotte Street fire, another alert was issued for people to shut their windows and turn off air filtration.
“Our assessment risk really needs to weigh the industrial presence in our community very heavily,” Hickey said.
He said he shares the union’s concerns about the probabilities part, adding he would like to see more of the risk assessment placed on what can happen in an event like the one that happened at AIM in September.
Hickey said the closure of Station 8 was not an easy decision, but said the report confirms the decision was the right one.
“It was an adequate decision for both more efficient fire service and also a significant cost savings to the city when we were in the position we were in at the time,” he said.
And while Hickey said he wants to discuss the recommendations further on how they can best improve the fire service in Saint John, it has unique challenges as a city.
“These recommendations are no surprise to or shock to any of us around the table to say: how can we make sure that we are focused on outcomes, focusing on a strategy that delivers better results for them in a more effective way?” he said.