Calgary now has a second dedicated Calgary Fire Department medical response unit, after an initial truck based out of Station 1 in Downtown Calgary proved to be both the city’s busiest firefighter unit, but also an effective way to reduce resources used to respond to calls.

The second unit, unveiled on Feb. 13, will be based out of Station 2 located in the west end of the Beltline.

Fire Chief Steve Dongworth said that the additional unit would remove the need for trucks meant to fight structural fires to respond to medical calls, and for two rather than four firefighters, to be on those calls.

“By redeploying the smaller lighter vehicles instead of a full fire response and crew, we can ensure that the right resources are allocated to each emergency situation,” he said.

“Were able to redirect our heavier apparatus to address other emergencies, allowing us to maintain our efficiency and our response times, particularly in our busiest stations.”

He said that the medical response units deployed by the Calgary Fire Department were meant to support the dedicated paramedic services provided by Alberta Health Services, and were not designed to transport patients to hospital.

“Our firefighters will remain on site until Alberta Health Services EMS arrives, offering continuous support and assistance as needed throughout the duration of the call,” Chief Dongworth said.

Medical response the busiest firefighting unit in Calgary

Even though firefighters only respond to echo and delta calls—the calls that are the most severe and life-threatening—the Station 1 unit was consistently the busiest firefighting unit in the city, with nearly 6,000 calls in 2023.

“We have had a very high medical call volume in the core, and we have seen the opioid epidemic driving that number up for sure… but it’s not exclusively that,” said Chief Dongworth.

“Echoes include cardiac arrest, the people who are having difficulty breathing, overdoses, and things like that where people are unconscious and pulseless. The deltas are as serious, they’re the next step down from that. So, shortness of breath and significant trauma.”

He said that the department was very confident in the work that they have been doing, and the benefit that firefighters provide to work alongside paramedics to save lives.

Chief Dongworth also stressed the benefits of having a dedicated medical unit, ensuring that other firefighting resources are available when needed.

“We saw about a 15 per cent growth in call volume last year from 81,000 and change to 92,000 calls. That’s been a consistent growth pattern over three or four years now, that if it continues, will take us over 100,000 calls this year,” he said.

“The reintroduction of Medical Response Unit Number 1 certainly took the sting out of that, where we actually saw a marginal increase in performance last year. I think the introduction of this unit will help us with the growth that will happen this year.”

Unit paid for by City of Calgary out of 2023-2026 Calgary Fire Department budget

Chief Dongworth said that the establishment of both units was done through funding support provided by Calgary city council, under the fire department’s 2023-2026 budget.

Mayor Jyoti Gondek said that council was investing an additional $3.4 million to operate the second unit out of Station 2.

“Right now, 55 per cent of the calls from the Calgary Fire Department are medical response calls. That’s why we have these two response units. That’s not their primary role, but they’re out there doing this work because it has to get done,” she said.

Mayor Gondek took issue with the provincial government for not providing matching funding for the medical response units.

“It’s a really good question about why Calgarians should care who’s paying for what, because the label that’s often given to local government is that we’re increasing property taxes and you’re not receiving anything in return,” she said.

“I can tell you that property taxes are impacted when we have to provide housing, when we have to provide affordable housing, when we have to take care of things like public safety on our own. When we have to provide the dollars that are needed for medical response units, that ends up translating to your property taxes, and the provincial government is absolutely supposed to be in charge of this.”

The issue of provincial funding for firefighter-delivered medical responses has been raised in Calgary since 2019. Similar requests for provincial funding for local medical response have been raised by councils in Grande Prairie, and in B.C.