When firefighters in one part of Vancouver are overwhelmed with emergency calls, dispatchers fielding new calls in that area start pulling firefighters from elsewhere – areas further away that lead to delays in emergency response times.
This happens about four times every day, often involving life-threatening calls, according to Vancouver Fire Chief Brennan Blue.
“It becomes a domino effect,” Blue said. “As you start pulling from other districts for calls, you’re basically stacking calls in those other districts as well. We just don’t have the resources for the amount of population that we’re protecting.”
On Feb. 8, Vancouver voters will be asked to fund more firefighters, new equipment, retrofit three fire stations and fully replace two more. City officials and Blue said the fire department has not kept pace with Vancouver’s population growth.
The proposal asks voters to raise the property tax levy by $0.50 per $1,000 in assessed value. A person whose home is valued at $440,000 would pay $18.33 per month, according to city representatives.
The Vancouver Fire Department, Blue said, has stagnated despite the city’s growth. It serves city residents and some outside city limits, a population of about 288,000 people.
Since 2007, more than 50,000 new residents have moved into the fire department’s coverage area, the chief said, noting annual calls have increased by about 9,000 in that time frame – amounting to 30,000 emergency calls total.
In that same time frame, Vancouver’s roster of firefighters dropped from 190 to 182. Blue, who became chief about a year ago after moving from central California, couldn’t point to a specific cause for the dip in employment.
Since 2016, Vancouver fire and EMS services have failed to meet their own standards for response times. The department aims to respond to 90% of high-priority, life-threatening calls in less than eight minutes, but have fallen short the last five years.
“By adding additional resources, additional squad apparatus and additional ladder companies, that gives us more depth to respond to multiple calls at the same time,” Blue said.
If approved, the new tax revenues would fund about 40 full-time firefighting staff: four captains, 11 medics, 24 firefighters and three support staff. It may also help pay for four new captains and nine firefighters at the department’s upcoming Fire Station 11, just northeast of Vancouver city limits.
The funds would also pay for a new ladder truck, retrofits to three fire stations and fully replace two more. According to Blue, a 2012 study commissioned by the city found the stations were vulnerable to earthquakes.
