Bryan Burleigh knew he wanted to be a firefighter as a teenaged boy growing up in the Hart community and recognized it would help his chances of getting hired by Prince George Fire Rescue if he had a trade under his belt.
So he became a carpenter, and just a few months after he attained his Red Seal accreditation he got the call to join the fire department.
That was 23 years ago. On Thursday the City of Prince George announced the 47-year-old Burleigh has been appointed fire chief to replace the retiring Cliff Warner.
After three years as deputy chief in charge of operations and training Burleigh will assume his new role overseeing a staff of 150 employees next week.
Clayton Sheen will continue as deputy chief in charge of administration and fire prevention. Burleigh’s deputy chief replacement has yet to be announced.
“Moving into the role of fire chief I’ll be less hands-on,’ said Burleigh. “It’s a big-picture strategic role more than managing the day-to-day stuff. We have a strategic plan that we as deputies were part of under Cliff and so now it’s just being able to take that plan to the next step without Cliff.”
One of Burleigh’s priorities will be to establish a firefighter training base in Prince George, which is part of the municipal force’s mandate. Quesnel is the closest facility available to Prince George firefighter to conduct live simulations of fires and practice extractions and each firefighter is expected to undergo annual training events to help their fire suppression and civilian extraction skills sharp.
“We need to have a live fire training centre here, we need to have a burn building and dedicated site where we can do our auto extrications and our fundamental skillsets with different types of things like natural gas and (to simulate) car fires,” said Burleigh.
“It could become a regional training centre for the north. There are many industry partners that have a have a desire and a need and requirement to fulfill annual training. There’s legislative requirements now from the office of the fire commissioners to say what full-service departments need on annual training and live fire is one of them. If we can get that in Prince George it’s going to increase our training opportunities and increase our efficiencies as a responding agency and it will make our firefighters safer and stronger.”
City council approved funding to devote a firefighter and supervisor to staff a pickup truck to be used for medical calls to avoid having to send a fully staffed fire truck to assist someone in medical distress. But to cover all shifts on that medical truck and replace members away on holidays, that two-person crew will require 10 new positions added to the city’s budget.
“The ultimate goal is to staff that apparatus with four people,” said Burleigh. “For every seat in the fire service we need five people to fill it because they have four platoons and then we need one for holiday relief and vacancies. But in the meantime we’ll use that truck as a secondary response and use those two members to support a medical unit.”
All Prince George firefighters are trained as emergency medical responders and Burleigh said it is very likely their first responder medical training will eventually go beyond that, with at least two members of the force already accredited as primary care paramedics.
“Our level of training is BC Ambulance Service baseline training, so now we have the same skillset that’s integrated,” said Burleigh. “We have formed a true partnership with (BC Emergency Health Services) at the boots-on-the-ground level, as well as at the senior administration level.
“We have a great partnership, we cross-train with them and understand and support each other, so it’s become a very combined service in many aspects.”
Burleigh’s background as a carpenter has served him well in firefighting and he has a good understanding of residential housing construction as well as experience with commercial/industrial building. This has helped him train other firefighters in the use of equipment and techniques needed to expose fires contained in closed areas and predict where fires are most likely to spread.
He said the firewalls that were part of the frame construction of the Boardwalk Apartments when the complex was built sometime in the 1980’s worked to contain the spread of that early-morning fire last Thursday and gave firefighters time to prevent the fire from spreading to the entire building.
Friday will be Warner’s last day on the job. He took on the role as the city's 11th fire chief since it became a full-time position in the 1950s, assuming the duties as chief from John Iverson in January 2022, at the tail end of COVID-19 pandemic.
Warner oversaw the transformation as front-line firefighters became tasked more often as first responders to medical calls heightened in recent years by the opioid crisis.
“As we wish retiring Chief Warner the best following his 30 years of service, and welcome Deputy Chief Burleigh into this role, we congratulate both gentlemen on entering their next chapters,” said Eric Depeneau, the city’s director of administrative services.
“Deputy Chief Burleigh has led the response to a number of challenging emergencies and has been present as part of the leadership team during the negotiation of the current collective agreement, management of complex social issues and refinement of our internal training program. He is a strong leader and has the respect of the service. We are fortunate to see him take on the immense responsibility of fire chief.”
Burleigh is a native of Prince George who graduated from Kelly Road Secondary School. He and wife Toni are the parents of a 15-year-old daughter, Evann, and 13-year-old son, Daxton.
Warner served 30 years with PGFR and was chief for the past three years. Burleigh says he’s been fortunate working alongside Warner, whose example has groomed him for the job.
“If I had a choice I would like to work under Cliff for a few more years but he’s met his time and it’s time for him to move on to the next chapter,” said Burleigh.
“Cliff has more time and energy to give but he’s hit the 30-year mark and he’s happy to move on to the next phase. I’m pretty fortunate to work under and for a guy like Cliff. He was a great leader and role model.
“He was great at succession planning and I think he set us up for success. He was a man with enough passion and integrity that he wouldn’t leave unless he didn’t feel we were were ready to take over and that allows us to move forward in a positive way.”
