Monday August 28, 2023 | COLWOOD, BC [Last update August 29, 2023 – 3:40 pm]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
Tonight Colwood Fire Chief Bryan Erwin asked council to approve renewal of the Mutual Aid Agreement for fire rescue services between City of Colwood and City of Langford fire departments.
In response to a question from Mayor Doug Kobayashi, Chief Erwin said the mutual aid activity level is about 40/60 or 50/50 or 60/40 as to aid between the two fire services.
Fire Department Links: City of Colwood Fire Dept | City of Langford Fire Dept
More Langford firefighters will reduce load on Colwood:
Chief Erwin explained in response to a question from Councillor Ian Ward that when Langford Fire Station 2 (at Happy Valley Road and Sooke Road) has full operations with more full-time firefighters that there will be less burden on Colwood.
That shift is expected to happen in the next year or two, since the City of Langford approved the budget for nine more firefighters and training of new Langford recruits is underway.
Emergencies happen:
In the fire service there are no timelines or patterns as to when emergencies happen.
“We experience periods of high call volumes with complex and large incidents that required additional resources to mitigate,” said Colwood Fire Chief Bryan Erwin in a statement to Island Social Trends, the day after the council meeting.
“It is in these moments that the benefits of mutual aid agreements — like he one we have between Colwood and Langford — prove to be so important,” said Chief Erwin.
“This mutual aid agreement ensures that we have the available resources when needed and will allow us to continue to support each other moving forward. I am very proud of the great working relationship we have in the Westshore and am thankful for our Council’s support in the renewal of this agreement,” said Colwood’s fire chief. “This will ensure the continued safety of our communities.”
Langford Fire Chief weighs in:
“The mutual aid agreement benefits both communities by being able to rely on each other for resources for incidents that exceed day-to-day response and has proved to be equitable for both communities,” says Langford Fire Chief Chris Aubrey, in a statement provided to Island Social Trends.
“While staffing Station 2 in Langford will reduce response times to both South Langford and South Colwood, the agreement will still be equitable and the departments will continue to support each other at larger incidents as we did under the previous agreement,” says Chief Aubrey.
“I am pleased that both Langford and Colwood’s councils supported this renewal and the continued positive working relationships between our fire departments,” says Langford’s fire chief.
Other municipalities:
The fire departments of View Royal and Metchosin also take part in mutual aid fire department support in the west shore.
Colwood Fire Department has a mutual aid agreement with the Metchosin Fire Department and Highlands Fire Department. Colwood has an Automatic Air agreement with the Town of View Royal.
What constitutes an emergency:
The only substantial revision to the current agreement is an updated definition of what constitutes an “Emergency”. Pursuant to the revised contact, an “Emergency” means:
“An emergency in the opinion of the Fire Chief or Officer in Charge that endangers the lives, safety, welfare, and well-being of people, or the safety of fabric of buildings or structure and which cannot be brought under control by the use of local firefighting resource within the area of jurisdiction and includes any of the following:
a) Fire emergency
b) Rescue emergency
c) Medical emergency; and
d} Emergency standby services
In addition, the contract was revised to include indemnity and insurance provisions to ensure the contact provides the required protection to both communities.
Council support:
Council passed the motion for renewal unanimously.
