Monthly Archives: November 2011

When members of Rocky View County, AB Local 4794 participated in a Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation Run for the Cure event October 2, it was with some touching personal stories in mind.

The local’s effort was spearheaded by Treasurer Bill Cormack, who lost his mother-in-law, grandmother and aunt to breast cancer. And among the local’s 15 participants were father and son fire fighters John and Tim Ross, who lost their wife and mother, Dolores Ross, to the disease in August.

The Local 4794 Run for the Cure team counted 29 members in total, including family and friends, and raised more than $15,000, by far the most among participating IAFF affiliates.

“It became a very special event for the local,” says Local President Craig Halifax. “I’m certain it will become one of our premier events and hopefully it will grow every year.”

The IAFF has partnered with the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation (CBCF) to coordinate breast cancer fundraising and awareness efforts in Canada. The next event, the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation Cook for the Cure, involves dinner parties held as fundraisers anytime during the month of October. The IAFF Canadian Office will send more information about the Cook for the Cure to local presidents and secretaries soon.

Run for the Cure, which is sponsored by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), next takes place on September 30, 2012. The IAFF encourages Canadian locals to consider fielding teams under the IAFF banner. Money raised by IAFF affiliates will be tracked through the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation web site.

Other Canadian IAFF participation in the Run for the Cure included Spruce Grove, AB Local 3021. The IAFF Canadian Office raised $325. Numerous other Canadian locals are raising funds and awareness for breast cancer through other initiatives, such as pink fire trucks and T-shirts.

With only one fire station in the rapidly expanding Leduc, Alberta, IAFF Local 4739 fire fighters have long been concerned that it was only a matter of time before disaster struck. And it did. A recent fire severely damaged or destroyed six homes.

Local 4739 fire fighters were dispatched to a neighborhood in the west end of the City, where there is no fire station. After eight minutes, the first responding units finally arrived on the scene to find three homes on fire with flames spreading to a fourth house.

“We do not come close to meeting safe staffing standards,” says Leduc Local 4739 President Douglas Britton. “And, as this fire demonstrated, an eight minutes response time is way too much time to go by before starting fire suppression. We are lucky that no one was injured or worse.”

By the time fire fighters contained the blaze, four houses were burned to the ground and two others were severely damaged. Other homes had heat damage.

“I can say with confidence that if we had a fire station in the west end, the amount of property loss we saw here would have been far less,” says Britton.

The need for not one, but two additional fire stations in Leduc is not news. Three independent studies – including a Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis conducted by the IAFF – have concluded that one station is needed in the west end and another in the north end of Leduc to keep first response times to four minutes or less.

Still, the Leduc City Council has been hesitant to green light the building of the new firehouses. Council members say one may be built in the west end next spring but a new firehouse in the north end may be as long as five years away.

“This is troubling as there are 11 hotels in the north end and even more are being built,” says Britton. “If a fire breaks out there, the risk for high property loss, even fatalities, is huge.”

Spruce Grove Fire Fighters Association Local 3021 of the International Association of Fire Fighters hosted their first ever Fire Ops 101 for City of Spruce Grove Council and Senior Leadership team.   Members of Local 3021 volunteered to spend the day with members of Council and Senior Management in a variety of simulated emergency situations.  Participants received first hand knowledge and experience of the need for appropriate staffing levels to mitigate fire emergencies along with motor vehicle collisions and medical emergencies.  The intent of the event was to provide first hand and real time experience of the dangers and hazards that fire fighters experience.   Participants where provided the required safety gear and then they where escorted by trained fire fighters into the training building with a live fire scenario in progress.  They where then expected to deploy a hose line and attack and extinguish the fire.  The next scenario involved a vehicle where they used the “Jaws of Life” and cutters to remove a patient.  The final scenario included a working emergency call where a pt suffered a cardiac arrest and they where expected to follow the direction of the Paramedic during the call.  All three scenarios provided hands on demonstration of the workings of Spruce Grove Fire Service in their day-to-day operations.  To stress the needs of appropriate staffing levels the final demonstration included a live fire burn cell.  This burn cell was built using your typical household living room supplies (couch, table, chair, TV and wall decorations) and was lit on fire.  This demonstration showed the importance of early detection (smoke detectors) and the need for quick response times along with sufficient personal to rescue occupants if trapped and to extinguish the fire.

At the end of the day participants left the event with a renewed knowledge of what Spruce Grove Fire Services experiences at any given time.