Oshawa Fire Services adding more firefighters and staff

Money has been set aside in the Oshawa 2020 budget to fill five new full-time positions with Oshawa Fire Services.

There could be more, with council scheduled to hear from a consulting company on the state of the department in the spring.

Fire Chief Derrick Clark has been with Oshawa Fire Services for almost 34 years and is its longest-serving member.

This year, he’ll be hiring three new firefighters, a communications officer and an assistant deputy fire chief.

“We had three shifts that were understaffed by one member and that will help us with a buffer and hopefully maintain staffing,” Clark said.

“If we don’t have the appropriate number of staff, we use overtime, and there’s been a tremendous amount of stress on the city over the last few years.”

In 2019, the city paid about $1 million in overtime costs.

Mayor Dan Carter says adding these five new full-time positions was a preliminary recommendation from an outside consulting company, Dillon Consulting Limited.

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“We’ve invested in this fire master plan and brought experts in the field to find out what their findings are,” Carter said.

“I’m anxious to see what their recommendations are. We never want to see anyone lose their life in regards to fires in our city.”

Council has committed close to $30 of its $180 million 2020 budget towards fire safety.

That’s $750,000 more than last year.

It’s coming up on two years since the deadly fire in central Oshawa that claimed the lives of two kids and two adults.

While the Firefighters Association is still fighting for another fire truck at hall one, they see the addition of more staff as a step in the right direction.

“Any information that the city can get to further the safety of our community, further the safety of our firefighters, I think is a good thing,” said Peter Dyson, president of the Oshawa Professional Firefighters Association.

“It’s not just a cost to taxpayers, it’s an investment in our community that will pay dividends in forms of lives saved and property saved.”

The new positions are expected to be filled in the next few months, with recruiting beginning next week.

Dillon Consulting Limited is expected to release its final report and findings to Oshawa city council in the early spring.