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Regional fire chief attempts to make region safer
Susan Thompson
for Smoky River Express
Regional Fire Chief John McDermott is making sure local fire departments are up to current standards by revising and updating crucial paperwork.
McDermott told McLennan town council at their July 13 meeting that some of the documents the region had been operating under had become outdated.
McLennan’s council passed a motion to endorse and sign off on the Joint Fire Quality Management Program (FQMP) Revision, an updated version of the joint document held by stakeholders within the M.D. of Smoky River.
A major change to the joint document was the inclusion of Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FOIP).
The revised document also makes the management and overall maintenance of the FQMP the responsibility of the Director of Protective Services rather than leaving it the responsibility of each municipal administrator.
This new accreditation through the Alberta Safety Codes Council allows any one of the five trained and certified Safety Codes Officers (fire) under the jurisdiction of the Director of Protective Services to conduct fire inspections on commercial and/or public buildings within the boundaries of the M.D. to ensure buildings follow the Alberta Fire Code.
Granting this “designation of powers” to the officers will help minimize risks of fire and any danger to resident’s lives.
Being an accredited joint municipality also allows these officers to conduct fire investigations after a fire has already occurred.
All five local municipal stakeholders were presented the document.
“Everybody’s made the motion (and passed it) to endorse the document it now,” McDermott says.
McDermott will soon circulate a master document to individual municipalities and once they’ve all signed it he will then will submit it to the province.
McDermott is also reviewing and revising the Fire Department Standard Operating Guidelines (SOG’s) of all fire departments he oversees.
“It puts best practices on paper so that they comply with provincial and federal law and Occupational Health and Safety regulation.”
The updated documents will better reflect the firefighting practices of today. That means volunteer firefighters helping protect the community will be better protected themselves due to safer official practices in the department.
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