Colloquially, many Calgarians have probably already guessed by the many sirens that have become a regular part of the din of the city soundscape, that there has been a lot more calls for emergency help being made.

They aren’t wrong. Call volume for the Calgary Fire Department increased by nearly 50 per cent in 2023, versus that of pre-pandemic and 2020 levels—and is continuing to rise with no sign of plateauing. The service has gone from 60,000 calls annually in 2019–2020, to 80,000 in 2022, to being on pace to finish 2023 with 94,000.

Those calls, said CFD Chief Steve Dongworth, reflect the challenges Calgary is facing with health and safety.

“I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that it’s very significant growth for us, and it will challenge us. It also tells us that obviously something’s going on in our community that is warranting that extra response from us,” he said.

Making up the increase in 2023 was a nine per cent increase in fires, a nine per cent increase in motor-vehicle collisions, a 20 per cent increase in the number of false alarms, and a 22 per cent increase in medical calls, which itself was made up of a 59 per cent increase in the number of opioid overdose calls.

Chief Dongworth characterized some of the increases, like that of the increase in collisions, as part of the post-pandemic recovery from record lows. But other sources of call volume growth are due to just more people wanting to live in Calgary.

“We know the population is growing pretty quickly right now. We know that means more homes are being built, but fundamentally I think unfortunately we also see the impact of unhoused people who are also experiencing addictions and mental health, and we know that’s a big deal in terms of our volume,” he said.

“There’s a 59 per cent increase in calls related to opioids and poisonings and things like that, which is clearly suggesting that there’s a problem with addictions in the City of Calgary.”

That level of increased service demand has also put a greater strain on firefighters.

“The two things is it means a lot more work there, they’re getting a lot more calls, and the other piece it means is there’s an emotional toll with those kinds of calls,” Chief Dongworth said.

“I talk to my crews, and many of them get to know unhoused people having those kinds of difficulties by first name, and they may see them multiple times. Then they may end up going to the call where it’s the last call.”

He said that the fire department can train firefighters to take on any number of different tasks, but ultimately there is the emotional toll.

“Ultimately, we all care, we all struggle with it especially when these folks are so vulnerable. Many of them are very young, and obviously they’re struggling to survive in our world today. So yeah, our folks are busier, or folks are also challenged by these kinds of calls in different ways.”

Specialized medical response

Part of the way that the CFD has responded over the past year was through the creation of a specialized medical response unit through the support of Calgary City Council funding, that has attended more than 5,800 medical calls (or just over 6 per cent of all of CFD calls).

“It’s by far the busiest vehicle in the city, and it’s having a huge impact. If it hadn’t been in service this year, I think we would have seen a bit more of a degradation in our performance for servicing Calgarians,” Chief Dongworth said.

The unit only responds to calls that are classified as echo and delta—which are the rarest, but also the most seriouslife-threatening calls for emergency medical help.

That medical-only unit has mirrored an overall improvement of ambulance service in Calgary, which Chief Dongworth said has been noticed by the firefighters themselves.

“Probably eight months, nine months ago, my firefighters were saying to me ‘Chief that there’s been a huge improvement.’ And they were telling me they’re seeing EMS much quicker at calls. That’s actually gone backwards a little bit since then as we track it, but it’s still a significant improvement,” Chief Dongworth said.

At the height of the EMS crisis in 2022, CFD trucks were called into service to transport patients to hospital. That’s something they haven’t done this year.

“I never want to be critical of the [EMS] folks they have on the street. They are amazing people, and I bump into them often when I’m in fire stations. They’re obviously doing everything they can, and they’re very frustrated when they’re held in hospital for two or three hours or more taking care of patients in the hallway,” Dongworth said.

“It’s a political issue as well. Council are very concerned that we are we’ve added a medical response unit back into service this year, and that that has no purpose other than medical calls. So we’re actually incurring extra costs that taxpayers pay for to supplement AHS service.

“Of course, the belief of council, quite understandably, is we should be recovering those costs. That’s not something that Alberta Health Services agrees with right now.”

Credit to council for interest and support when interest and support is needed

Two years through the City of Calgary’s multi-year budget cycle, the pressures have been mounting on the Calgary Fire Department.

Chief Dongworth praised council for continuing to provide investments in services.

“I would give great credit to this council. I’ve never seen a council like this in my time 30 years with Calgary Fire in terms of their interest in the fire service and their willingness to support the fire service financially in is what a very difficult time. It’s not an easy time. Public dollars are tight,” Chief Dongworth said.

The goal, he said, was to continually push for sufficient resources to cover a growing city both in terms of physical size and in population.

“We presented council with a plan a couple of years ago about what would it take to be sustainable. I think with the investment that’s been made during this cycle, and probably another smaller investment in the next cycle. So 2027 to 2030, I think we’d see ourselves be pretty sustainable for a period of time, but of course, everything keeps moving,” Chief Dongworth said.

“We’re certainly trying to provide the best value we can to the taxpayer in Calgary. We’re not looking for a Cadillac level of service. We’re just looking at a level of service that’s sustainable, but it’s also responsible to look out for Calgarians and it’s great value for money, which is what I believe we are.”

Climate to also play a role in the future of firefighting in Calgary

That future of service delivery, said Chief Dongworth, is in some respects dependent on what the future climate is for Calgary.

“We’re likely going to see a very dry spring and even through the winter. We get fires through the winter as well. There isn’t snow on the ground, but you’ve got very dry fine fuel. It’s not perfect conditions for fire, but the fuel is still pretty likely to catch on fire,” he said.

“The little amount of snow we’ve had—although I’m sure we’ll get some more early in the year—it will leave us vulnerable to grass fires to wildland fires within the city. For sure, we had some pretty big ones this year.”

He said that although Calgarians think of CFD as a municipal fire service that stops at the city borders, the increasing prevalence of wildfires across the province is something that directly affects services here in the city.

“We deployed three times this year. I don’t think we’ve ever deployed more than more than once in a year previously,” Chief Dongworth said.

Those deployments meant sending firefighters to Grande Prairie, Yellowhead County, and to Yellowknife—which required a very rare airlift of firefighters from Calgary to that city.

“That does have an impact though, because we have to send the resources out of town when we have the resources. The first thing when I get a request is we look at what do we have in the way of equipment, what do we have in the way of personnel that we could spare. Clearly, the bylaw and the City of Calgary makes it very clear to me that my primary responsibility is to provide services within the city.”

He said that there is a system in place for requests from the province for support, and there is pride from the CFD for never refusing a call for aid.

“I think in 2024 we’re gonna see more of that, more of the same, because the same problems will exist in terms of these things that often happen near small communities, with with very little resource, and we’re one of the biggest resources in the province,” Dongworth said.

“So naturally, we, at some stage, we’re likely to get the call again.”

Addressing the fire hazards of 2024

Chief Dongworth said that the goal for the department is always to stay on top of what is emerging as a cause for fires.

“We have lots of connections from myself and other people in the agency with chiefs across North America, sometimes around the world, to see what’s changing in firefighting. We really do keep our eyes open and we do embrace change, and we also really look for what’s emerging,” he said.

Among the hazards that the fire department has to address is the increase in electric-powered vehicles and devices powered by lithium-ion batteries—something the Chief said was huge for the department.

Deaths from fires caused by batteries failing in cities like New York, were among the concerns that Chief Dongworth expressed.

“Vancouver is starting to see this frequently as well.”

“Your camera batteries, down to your laptop batteries, your cell phone batteries: There are many, many of them. Lithium-ion, as long as they’re used properly, they actually don’t present a huge hazard. It’s when they’re when they’re charged incorrectly… if you drop them or crush them, they can catch fire,” he said.

“There are many cases now of landfill fires where the big machinery that crushes down the stuff in the landfill actually starts fires if there’s lithium-ion batteries in there because they rupture the battery.”

That concern also extends into the industrial and commercial space as well.

“All of these things present different challenges than we faced years ago. We’re clearly seeing today places where codes and regulations aren’t even keeping up with technology,” Chief Dongworth said.

“I think most people would have never seen what some warehouses look like today, where much of the warehouse is operated by robots. For the most part, it doesn’t really present huge challenges for firefighting, but for some of those systems there’s some challenges there in terms of the way those are designed, the ways those are constructed, and unfortunately, they are ahead of the code development.”

Another issue identified was the modern materials used in vehicles, including ICE and EV, and how that affects older parkades that would not meet modern code for sprinkler systems.

“We’re seeing fires in parking garages that we’ve never seen previously, based on the materials that are used in vehicles today. There’s usually no firefighting systems in legacy parkades, no sprinklers or anything.”

“You’ve got plastic fuel tanks, obviously a high fuel load, and you’ve got electric vehicles there is now as well—although they much less catch fire, but when they do, it’s more serious because the batteries are very difficult to difficult to get to and to extinguish the fire.”

Short-term rentals, currently a hot debate over their contribution to, or lack thereof, to the current housing crisis, are also a concern to firefighters because of occupancy.

“There’s no regulation of those and they’re being used very similarly to other kinds of occupancies where there is regulation. So again, as our world changes, we have to keep we have to keep pace with it,” Chief Dongworth said.

All of those new causes of fires, in addition to the ones the department has seen regularly—which also prompted a seasonal message about being safe over the holidays.

“I would say, most importantly, make sure you have working smoke alarms, working carbon monoxide alarms. Take care of what you’re cooking over Christmas, that’s still the most common cause of fire in homes, and often people cook a lot more of a Christmas,” the Chief said.

“Have fun, but be safe as well”

International recognition—for a sixth time

Among the successes that CFD had for 2023, was from the increased level of public engagement done by the service.

“I think we’ve always had an impact in the community beyond what people see all the time. The VR has been a leap forward, and you’re going to see us with an electric fire truck next year. We pride ourselves in embracing new technology and trying it as soon as we can or getting ahead of the game.”

The service launched a virtual reality fire safety game earlier this year that allowed users, primarily school children, to learn how to be fire-safe in their homes.

Other initiatives included the continuation of the long-running Junior Fire Chief program and a very successful Firefighters Toy Association party that served thousands of less fortunate Calgary children.

“People look to Calgary Fire Department, I believe the fire industry, as a progressive agency and often want to see what we’re doing. Good on us for doing that, and it’s incumbent on us to do that,” he said.

“We have to constantly evaluate new technology to help us in firefighting, but often more importantly, where we can leverage that to prevent fires occurring in the first place—because that’s obviously the best scenario.”

Chief Dongworth quoted former celebrated Calgary Fire Chief Wayne Morris, saying that there was no honour in fighting a fire that could have been prevented.

“I think those words still ring true,” he said.

The Calgary Fire Department is also working towards a record sixth international accreditation in a row with the Commission of Fire Accreditation International—the most of any agency accredited by the organization.

“We open our doors every few years to have a peer team from other fire departments, fire chiefs, and others come in and really dig into what we do. I can tell you, they dig in very deeply,” Chief Dongworth said.

“We’re confident we will be accredited, and we’re an agency that leads the field.”