Kelowna firefighters association pushes for more hires: ‘Our resources were stretched thin’

The Truswell Road fire was one of the largest and fastest-moving blazes the Kelowna Fire Department has faced in recent years.

Flames spread from a roofer’s torch to engulf an entire building under construction, before spreading to neighbouring structures.

Now the Kelowna Firefighters Association is pointing to the Truswell Road fire to make a point: the city needs more firefighters.

“Our resources were stretched thin for sure,” association president Mike Hill said.  “We definitely needed more man power at the initial stages of the fire.”

Hill said when there aren’t enough resources at the scene of a fire, crews tend to push themselves too hard.

“Two guys went down with heat exhaustion.  Their bodies shut down.  They were taken to hospital, they were so spent.”

Last year, Kelowna council approved a Kelowna Fire Department Strategic Plan.

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Part of the plan included hiring 12 firefighters by this summer.

At that time, Mayor Colin Basran issued this statement: “Making sure our community is healthy and safe is a priority for council, and this plan sets a clear course to maintain efficient and financially sustainable fire protection for years to come.”

But when budget time came around in December, council deferred the hiring.

“They decided to put $2.5 million into an upgrade of city hall — not saying it’s not needed, it totally is — but I would like to see priorities put towards public safety and firefighter safety; having more firefighters in the city of Kelowna,” Hill said.

Kelowna’s fire chief says he will continue to lobby for more firefighters, but adds he does feel supported by city council.

“Our goal is to further our needs for public safety, obviously for us, that’s our number one priority; we live and breathe it, but we also realize that it competes with a lot of different priorities,” Travis Whiting said.  “We recognize that Kelowna Fire is one department within a large city organization with a lot of priorities.”

Whiting credits investments in training with the abilities of both career and paid-on-call firefighters to do their jobs so well.

He said both paid-on-call fire crews and firefighters from West Kelowna were brought in to backfill the city’s fire halls while the Truswell Road fire was being fought.

“We get creative,” Whiting said.  “We have plans in place, we have arrangements in place, we are served by professionals we have working on the fire service.”