City firefighters responded to 73 fires in 2021, a year that saw fire losses total more than $7.5 million.
Fire losses in Cambridge last year were down from 2020’s nearly $10 million high, but up slightly from 2019; a year that saw 103 fires break out in homes and businesses across the city.
Major fires in 2021 accounted for 86 per cent of the total fire losses and included a $1 million loss at 1635 Blair Rd. on Feb. 14, a $1.2 million loss at 23 Sasha Rd. on April 9, the $900,000 fire that destroyed the old Riverbank school house at 4800 Fountain St. N. on Aug. 24, and a $2 million loss in the Dec. 25 fire that destroyed a block of townhomes at 612-618 Linden Dr.
The numbers come from the city’s annual fire report, which provides a full account of fire suppression efforts of 132 personnel working across four platoons on a rotating 28-day schedule. Overall, the city’s fire services division has 150 full-time staff and operating budget expenditures of $27.46 million.
In addition to fires, city firefighters respond to medical emergencies, hazardous materials incidents, vehicle accidents, and other disasters and emergencies. Technical operations include high and low angle rope rescue, ice/water rescue, auto extrication, confined space rescue, and trench and structural collapse incidents.
In his report to council, fire chief Brian Arnold writes that 2020 saw a marked decrease in medical/resuscitator calls as fire departments across the region conserved scarce PPE for Waterloo Regional Paramedic Services’ needs.
Full-tiered medical responses resumed in 2021, with another pause during the Omicron variant’s spike in community spread. The temporary suspension began Jan. 1 and is under review on a month-by-month basis.
Arnold wrote that he attributed a response time increase from 6:51 in 2019 to 7:45 in 2021 to staff training and technical glitches with a new push-button responding feature on the mobile data terminals newly installed in 2021.
“We anticipate an improvement in 2022 with staff becoming more familiar with its function,” he wrote.
Although the report to council Tuesday was meant for review on the consent agenda, Coun. Jan Liggett asked when council should expect to see an update of the city’s fire master plan, which hasn’t been updated since 2013.
“We kept being promised it would come to us,” she said, referring to at least two previous requests for the document in 2020 and 2021.
She said she finds it “upsetting” it keeps getting pushed ahead and puts her in an “uncomfortable” position in having to continually ask for it.
“We put at risk our community, we put at risk our firefighters, we put at risk the real estate in our community and I find it very concerning that we have not done it,” she said, adding it’s an important document that should have been in place in time to give this council a chance to review it.
City manager Dave Bush said fire master plans typically come under review every five to 10 years and work on Cambridge’s new master plan is underway.
“No one is in harm’s way” in the meantime, he added.
He said staff is in the data analysis stage and he hopes to have a draft of the plan ready in the fall with a goal to reach approval early next year.
Arnold said delays in updating the plan were “for a number of reasons,” one of the main ones being the inability to find a consultant for the project. He said he’s since heard from the consultant they hired that “at least a preliminary report” will be tabled for council by the end of the year. It will include the city’s first community risk assessment, which has a provincial deadline for all municipalities to comply with in 2024.
Arnold said including it in the city’s updated fire master plan will put the city ahead of the deadline by two years.
