Mission, Pitt Meadows firefighters speak out on staffing challenges and increasing demand for services

MISSION — Some fire rescue departments in the Fraser Valley are calling on their governments to take action, as local firefighters are now running on fumes due to critical staffing shortages.

A single crew of four Pitt Meadows firefighters, as well as seven paid-on-call members, tackled a house fire that spread to another home last Sunday morning, on May 3 – “essentially doing the job of 15”, says IAFF Local 4810.

Two of those members ended up becoming injured. While not serious, the union says it still results in time loss and a recovery period for the service.

“This incident is not a one-off; it is the unfortunate state of the current response model,” wrote Local 4810. “It is not the fault of any Paid On Call members individually, but rather the reality of the challenges that the POC model has as a whole to meet standards required for emergency response in a growing community.”

Mission firefighter Rich Rangers also spoke passionately at a recent city council meeting the following day, saying the Carrington House fire was a significant wake-up call about the current state of the fire service.

“I remember as we masked up at the front entrance, […] I could see the fire in the ceiling and the stairwell, and I said to the young fellow I was with, ‘Well, we might die today,’” Rangers recalled. “I wasn’t entirely sure if I was joking or not.”

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While there were no serious injuries or deaths reported during the incident, Rangers recounted the harrowing rescue of one resident on the third floor.

“We come across a bariatric resident who can hardly stand, let alone walk with assistance at all,” he continued.

“We’re spending all our efforts to try to get one person out of this building as the f—ing roof is collapsing just down the hallway, and rooftop units are coming through the ceiling. […] It took us six firefighters to get one person.”

Fifteen career off-duty firefighters and 15 paid-on-call battled the fire from the inside, with another 13 “questionably” able to enter, and 17 who could only stay outside.

A crumbling staffing system

Rangers, who also serves as the vice president of IAFF Local 4768, concluded by saying the circumstances around the successful suppression of the fire were “an overall unbelievable alignment of stars that night”, and things could have ended differently.

The fire occurring at dinnertime meant there was plenty of Carrington House staff on hand to evacuate residents, but he added that most paid-on-call firefighters were also back in Mission from their out-of-town jobs.

“Dealing with unforeseen circumstances, the city needs to be effectively equipped at all hours of the day, not just sometimes,” he said. “This is not a simple staffing issue. It’s a public safety issue. It’s a strategic planning issue, and it’s an infrastructure issue.”

Paid-on-call firefighters, once known as volunteer firefighters, have limited capabilities when responding to incidents because they are often not trained to the same standards as career members.

“The reality is that it is difficult to train them to and maintain them at the same qualification and training standard as career members of the department. This is an increasing challenge,” said IAFF Local 4810.

The City of Pitt Meadows has responded to the union’s statement, saying the municipality is among many in B.C. that are struggling with the paid-on-call recruitment and retention model, but that it is committed to public safety, listing plans for a Fire Protection Master Plan and that it has hired 14 firefighters in the past three years.

Mission councillors also acknowledged their own local union’s frustration and said they are open to further discussion on how the City can finance additional staff for the service.