How Kelowna firefighters handled rare highrise fire last weekend
While it’s unusual for Kelowna firefighters to battle blazes in highrises, from a manpower point of view, a Sunday morning fire was not much different than any other structure fire.
“Whether it’s a single-family residence or this type of fire, our minimum we would send is usually 16 to 17 members,” fire chief Travis Whiting told iNFOnews.ca. “The minimum that we carry at any one time is 23.”
That means, when the alarm goes, most of the firefighters on duty head for the blaze.
The commander on site then evaluates how many are needed and estimates how long they will be needed for.
If it’s a big fire that’s going to require a lot of resources over a long period of time, off-duty, on call and neighbouring fire departments may be alerted, in case they are needed if a fire breaks out elsewhere.
In situations like the highrise fire, which was contained quickly, not everyone has to necessarily stay for the duration, Whiting said.
Sunday’s fire started shortly after 3 a.m. in the newly opened Brooklyn highrise in downtown Kelowna. The fire was on the ninth floor but the entire building was evacuated as a safety precaution. That means some residents had to walk down 28 flights of stairs.
READ MORE: Fire damages Kelowna highrise
Firefighters, on the other hand, got use the elevator.
The fire was quickly contained within the unit. It was considered an accidental fire triggered by the occupant, who was away at the time, deputy fire chief Scott Cronquist said.
The fire department doesn’t track fires by the number of storeys in a building. Anything with more than seven storeys is considered a highrise and needs specially trained firefighters.
It is unusual to have a fire in a highrise, both chiefs said.
“It’s not common for sure,” Whiting said. “With the new building codes, it’s less common than in the past. Certainly our ability to contain them to the area of origin is much better than it’s ever been with sprinklered buildings and well trained firefighters here in the community.”
READ MORE: More than half the units in 24-storey Kamloops highrise sell in single day
Despite the fact that the city is growing dramatically and highrises are proliferating, the Kelowna fire department has not had any increase in staffing since 2018 when the Glenmore fire hall went from a paid-on call volunteer hall to a full-time career staff hall and added a fifth engine company.
That doesn’t mean Whiting isn’t continuing to monitor the effects of population growth and taller developments on his force.
While newer buildings may be more fire resistant than in the past, the calls for first responder service have also gone up over time.
“The city is growing, we’re aware of that,” Whiting said. “We’re looking at how we can manage to keep pace, the number of staffing being one of them we’re obviously looking at but, how we’re doing our business and making sure we’re set up to manage both the population increase and all the different types of calls we see.”
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