Volunteer fire departments are scrambling to determine where they stand in relation to new training standards the B.C. Fire Commissioner has brought into play.
All 13 VFDs in the Fraser-Fort George Regional District have been temporarily limited to an "exterior operations service level," FFGRD fire services co-ordinator Melanie Perrin said this week.
It means firefighters are prohibited from entering a building if the situation calls for wearing breathing apparatus. In other words, dealing with a grease fire on a stove is still within bounds, but if a couch or mattress is ablaze, Perrin said they'll have to break a window and spray the fire down from the outside because of the toxic fumes it creates.
Fire chiefs have been asked to go through their documentation to confirm how many members they have who are qualified to do interior fire fighting. If enough meet the standard, they'll be escalated to the "interior operations service level," although they must still have enough qualified firefighters are the scene of a blaze before they can enter a building.
Although the new standard is creating some short-term headaches, Perrin said it's more suited to fire departments manned by volunteers over the long run.
Previously, they were subject to the National Fire Protection Association standard which required training beyond what volunteers needed. For example, everyone had to learn how to use a hydrant even though they will never see one at any of the fires they will go to.
Under the new standard, as spelled out in the Structure Firefighters Competency and Training Playbook, training can be taken to reach three graduated levels of service, starting at exterior, followed by interior and finishing with full service, which is for departments with full-time firefighters.
Perrin said she's heard plenty of concern raised by the local VFDs.
"They're upset because they don't want to not provide this service level to their communities," she said.
But she said training is being "really aggressively offered" to volunteer firefighters who need upgrading to meet the interior level.
Perrin said the new standards were developed in answer to the 2004 death of a volunteer firefighter in Clearwater. Chad Schapanksy fell through the floor of a burning restaurant. He didn't have a radio and a colleague used a cell phone to call for help.
A coroner's report recommended establishing a minimum training standard for volunteer firefighters and auditing the departments to make sure they lived up to it.
