The year has been a busy one for the Calgary Fire Department, and one that presented both opportunities and challenges to the way that the fire service has traditionally operated in the city.

Fire Chief Steve Dongworth sat down with LWC to discuss the year and what 2025 looks like for the service.

The biggest challenge in 2024 was the Bearspaw feeder main crisis. At times, it made the service consider how they would have had sufficient water to fight fires in Calgary.

That topic of water conservation was a frequent question of the fire department throughout June and July, and firefighters took extraordinary measures to limit the use of water. In one case, using just 600 litres to put out a house fire in Bowness.

“It’s frankly, something we hadn’t thought that much about previously. But we rapidly ramped up to where we put some things into place. Very quickly, we thought of new things, which is typical. I have a brilliant team right down to the firefighters on the on the front line,” Chief Dongworth said.

Among those solutions went from the traditional, finding places to fill tanks from open water supplies like rivers and lakes, to “crazy” ideas like having aerial water bombers.

“We actually had them on standby, should we have needed them. That would have been a very extreme circumstance. But there were some other things we looked at as well that we didn’t end up implementing, like rail cars full of water stationed across the city,” Chief Dongworth said.

“We refreshed our members as well how to draft or pull water from an open water supply, which is something we just don’t do in the city, because we have, normally we have a very reliable, robust hydrant supply.”

The department also saw the introduction of a second medical response unit for the Beltline, back in February of this year.

That, in addition to a 57 per cent decrease in the number of opioid overdoses in 2024 has had effects on both the lives of those who have been using opioids, but also for firefighters.

“There’s a more predictable, safe drug supply seems to be available, so people know what they’re getting, which makes them less likely to overdose,” the Chief said.

“Then there’s things like the the paramedics and the nurses in the Drop in Centre handling calls before they even make an emergency call… and some more, there are more community programs to help those folks as well. So that’s all helping.”

What that reduced call volume means for the future was less certain.

“Some of our units were almost becoming too busy in terms of the volume that we’re experiencing. So, although I think this is only a slight reprieve,” Chief Dongworth said.

Overall call volume for the service may be down between 1,000 to 2,000 calls from record highs in 2023, but other types of service calls than those for overdoses have risen to fill that gap.

“We’re seeing more false alarms than we’ve seen historically. We’re seeing more motor vehicle collisions than we have previously,” he said.

“I think this is only a slight reprieve… the trajectory over the last three years has been steeply upwards, so we’ll have to see what impact that has.”

Morale within the Calgary Fire Department is strong

What Chief Dongworth said that morale within the fire service is currently strong—especially given the impacts of the past several years including the Covid-19 pandemic.

“People love the work they do. I always say we have very clear mission, and it’s an honourable mission serving the community. Taking care of people having the worst day of their lives is something people migrate to this service for, and they get to do it,” he said.

“The other thing I think you can’t underestimate is the support we’ve seen from City Council through through this budget cycle. Morale can be challenged when you’re reducing your service.”

An example of that, he said, was when the medical response units were first taken out of service prior to the pandemic, and that had a large impact on the morale of the service.

“People feel they’re not being as supported, but when people see that support from council, they see through surveys the support from citizens who rate them as higher than any other city service in terms of satisfaction and importance, I think that has an impact on morale as well,” he said.

That funding increase from Calgary City Council led to the hiring of 116 new firefighters in 2024, which has lessened the burnout rates of firefighters.

The hiring increase is set to continue over the next two years, with the goal of up-staffing ladder and tower trucks, and to increase the buffer of firefighters to cover duty shifts for absences due to vacations, sickness, or training.

“That buffer was getting very, very thin, and it was impacting our ability to train. It was impacting our overtime,” Chief Dongworth said.

“One area we’re struggling with right now is getting our effective response for or our first alarm on scene at serious and escalating incidents, we’ve slipped to around 13–14, minutes now. We’ve slipped about a minute over the last year, and that’s why we want to get 12 firefighters with two engines and a ladder or a tower on scene.”

The good news was that the service was preparing to address increased demand from population growth, through the refurbishment of the Varsity Fire Station, and then a replacement fire hall in Cornerstone for the existing hall in Skyview Ranch in 2025.

“We’re going to have to see what happens where the call volume settles out,” Chief Dongworth said.

Firefighting evolving due to technological changes

Among the challenges that Calgary’s firefighters are facing, is that fires burn faster and spread more easily due to the changes in construction methods and materials of buildings in the city.

“Property burns more quickly, but also it spreads very quickly to other properties around it. Particularly when there’s any kind of wind, which there often is in Calgary,” said Chief Dongworth.

“Then you talk about some of the contents in people’s homes, which have changed so much. The foam that’s in furnishings, the finishes, all kinds of things.”

Added to that was the increased prevalence of lithium ion batteries in devices, which has become a challenge for fire services worldwide.

The technology is generally safe but anything that stores large amounts of energy has the potential to ignite.

“That’s perhaps where we need to catch up. In terms of education, we know there’s some challenges. If the batteries are damaged, if they’re overcharged, not charged properly, if you know, if they’re not batteries that are OEM,” he said.

That challenge led the Calgary Fire Department to launch an educational campaign in November to prepare Calgarians for what is likely to be an electronics heavy holiday season.

Beyond just the educational campaign, he said that the City of Calgary and the fire service would be working together on a city wide working group to be prepared for the likely increased number of fires causes by bad batteries or the improper disposal of them.

“There are parts of the city where we aren’t really as coordinated as we could be, because this isn’t just impacting the fire service, it’s impacting our waste and recycling folks with fires in landfills now, where the crushing machines are damaging [batteries],” Chief Dongworth said.

“Then we’ve got transit, who are allowing bikes and scooters on their vehicles, and that can create problems as well. There’s a number of examples now of lithium ion batteries causing problems on subways and buses. So, we want to pull all those people together and get on the same page, and see what we can do collectively to manage the problem as best as we can.”

Technology also is changing not only the types of fires that are fought by the service, but also the way that firefighters are protected from danger.

The service is set to install iPads in trucks for crews to use, alongside an updated records management system and a new computer aided dispatch system.

New radios and headsets are also set to be available for use by firefighters, which Chief Dongworth said would improve the ability for firefighters to communicate inside trucks.

Keeping the Calgary Fire Department healthier in 2025

In addition, the service has replaced their Class B foam—used to battle liquid fires like those caused by gasoline, propane, natural gas, or oils—with a non-polyfluoroalkyl foam.

The use of polyfluoroalkyls (PFAs) are also being removed from the protective gear that firefighter use, due to the danger that they pose to the health of wearers.

PFAs have been branded as forever chemicals because of their nature to become persistent pollutants in nature, and have also been linked to occupational cancers in firefighters.

“There’s no doubt that whatever we get as a replacement for our current protective gear won’t be as protective as previously, because the magical qualities that PFAs brought to it, in terms of preventing water, oil, other liquids, coming in and getting to the firefighter, is lost when you take away the PFAs,” Chief Dongworth said.

“I suspect in time, we will catch up again. So we’re going to have to retrain our firefighters. We’ve got this product now… it’s going to make you safer from not having PFAs, but it may not make you safer overall.”

Chief Dongworth said that the service had recently begun offering voluntary testing of members for PFAs, to which he himself was also tested for the substance.

Calgary’s own water supply is regularly tested for PFAs, and he said that there would be an interesting comparison between the tests.

“We don’t have the results yet, and we won’t be given individual results, but we’ll probably be able to talk a little bit about what we found in between 50 and 100 of our members that have had the opportunity to go and get tested,” he said.

Another focus for the new year, he said, would be on the occupational stress and mental health injuries that come from the job of firefighting.

“The one thing we’ve missed at times though, is when you have someone who has an occupational stress injury and they get treatment, the help they need, then they’re ready to come back into the workplace and that can be a difficult journey for people,” he said.

“I’m really excited about the fact of now we’re going to have a very robust program that gradually brings the person back from having what can often be very significant mental health injuries, back into the workplace where they can continue to contribute, come back to be in their social net.”

Political headwinds at home and abroad to affect Calgary Fire Department

Politics, both in Calgary, in Alberta, and even in the United States is likely to affect the service that the Calgary Fire Department is able to provide.

Top on the changes to come in 2025, is the likelihood of more calls for service for motor vehicle accidents, following the province’s rollback on the use of automated photo radar enforcement.

That change was heavily challenged by Calgary Police Service Chief Neufeld, after it was announced by the province at the beginning of Dec.

“I wouldn’t challenge Chief Neufeld at all. I talk often with him. I know he’s concerned about the impact this will have on traffic safety. Of course, there’s this social view that it’s just about making money. But red light cameras, speed on green, the enforcement on roads, I completely believe him and agree with him that we’re likely to see more serious collisions as a result,” said Chief Dongworth.

“I’m not sure how many more, but I’m sure it’s not going to it’s not going to help in terms of of keeping people safe on on Calgary’s particularly the higher speed roadways, but also just in communities.”

Another issue that is likely to stress the service, is the increasing number of weather related disasters that are occurring in Alberta, and elsewhere.

Though 2024 was one of the quietest years on record for mutual aid requests, Chief Dongworth said that the increasing overall trend was likely to stress that system.

“We were invited to go to Jasper, but we were invited when the town was already on fire. For a number of reasons we decided that we really couldn’t provide that help in that circumstance. But in other years, recently, we’ve done two–three deployments out of town, which again, it becomes a stressor on the service,” he said.

“Our people are happy to go. We’re happy to provide that. But I can see that being a regular, if not increasing trend.”

Abroad, the firefighting industry across North America has been having difficulty acquiring enough trucks.

In Calgary, the service has placed orders for new fire engines, but the reality is that it will be at least four years before they arrive in the city—a challenge that will likely be exacerbated by any tariffs that might be introduced by incoming President Donald Trump.

At home, Calgary is heading into a general municipal election in Nov. of 2025, and the potential of a federal election is growing larger for the new year as well.

Although, talk of more austere budgets from candidates hasn’t yet appeared to mean cuts to the fire service, said Chief Dongworth.

“I’m starting to hear, even from the fiscally conservative slate of candidates if, you like, that have been announced is they are focused on fiscal responsibility. Perhaps some reduction of the budget, but they have talked about a continuing focus on public safety,” he said.

“I’m hopeful though, when I hear that. I know some of some of the members of the more fiscally conservative group, even with within council today, have supported increases to our budget against that backdrop of great challenges to them.”

A message to stay safe this holiday season

Part of that quality of service and the people that work for the fire department was the reason CFD had been re-accredited by the Commission on Fire Accreditation International, Chief Dongworth said.

“Chief Wayne Morris brought the department to the table many years ago, and we were the first department in Canada. We just, in the summertime, got our sixth accreditation, which is a great achievement,” he said.

“There’s only 320 accredited fire departments worldwide, so we’re very proud of that.”

Other smaller, but no less important successes in 2024 for the department, he said, included putting blue lights on some fire engines to help with firefighter safety, holding the first ever Indigenous fire fighter camp, hosting the third annual Camp Courage to encourage young women to join emergency services, and installing Engine 23 in the children’s library at the Fish Creek Library.

“I could go on,” he said.

But, he said, the message this holiday season to Calgarians was to have a safe but more importantly enjoyable December.

“Always be safe with things like Christmas trees, particularly as they dry out with some of the electrical stuff. If people are using candles, all those things, have a safe holiday season,” he said.

“It’s a mutual love, and it’s a pretty neat thing to see consistently, how appreciative this community is of our first responders as a whole, and I would say the fire service in particular, but I would wish everyone very happy holiday season.”