THE CALGARY, ALBERTA, FIREFIGHTERS UNION is publicly protesting the reduced levels of response assignments that have recently been introduced in the city.

The Calgary Sun is reporting:

Mark Faires, president of the Calgary Firefighters Association, said the city is lagging far behind deployment standards employed in other major centres in Canada, in some cases sending half as many firefighters as a first response to emergencies.

Faires notes Calgary’s staffing resources for a first response calls for 12 firefighters for residential and 12-16 for an institutional blaze.

Conversely, the numbers for residential fires in other cities range from 15 to 22, while institutional blazes see numbers range from 17 to 31 across Canada.

This recent announcement by the union is partly in response to Fire Chief Bruce Burrell’s recent press conference (reported by CTV HERE) in which he told the citizens that the department is ready to act if there were a major event such as the recent propane plant explosion in Toronto.

Read the full story in the Calgary Sun HERE.

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