2015 Financial Annual Report

CITY OF SURREY OVERVIEWS

FIRE DEPARTMENT

The Fire Department helps to make the City a safer place to live and has responsibility for the following divisions/sections:

Training: The Training Branch develops and delivers training programs to enhance the skills, increase the competencies and expand the scope of training for Surrey’s 500 career and volunteer staff.

OPERATIONS DIVISION Operations is the largest division and is responsible for emergency medical services, fire suppression, and hazardous materials response and rescue activities. In addition to the activities handled by the Suppression Branch, the Operations Division is also responsible for the Prevention and Training Branches. Prevention: Prevention minimizes the risk of life and property loss, which is accomplished through Bylaws, the Fire Service Act and Fire Code Enforcement, public education and fire investigation. Fire Prevention Officers perform fire investigations, life safety inspections in commercial, assembly, and educational occupancies, re-inspections, as well as review plans for new buildings, renovations and construction sites for fire safety, occupancy approval, and business licenses. They also help to educate the public about fire safety.

SURREY EMERGENCY PROGRAM Surrey’s Emergency Program includes Neighbourhood

Emergency Preparedness Program (NEPP); Business Emergency Preparedness Program (BEPP); Surrey Emergency Program Amateur Radio (SEPAR); Surrey Search and Rescue (SSAR); and Emergency Social Services (ESS), Level One: Personal Disaster Assistance. Through these programs, City staff and the large network of volunteers provide valuable community emergency services.

2 0 1 5 A C C O M P L I S H M E N T S

• The Administrative Development Program (ADP) enrolled six staff for development for future exempt positions. A combination of work experience with educational opportunities and work projects was provided to all staff. Two vacant exempt positions were filled by hiring two staff who were in the Administration Development Program. • HomeSafe program resources were successfully redeployed to focus on targeted Community Safety Initiatives reaching 29,000 residents. • Developed a plan to restructure the fire inspection process to move from prescriptive inspections to risk-based inspections.

• Electrical Fire Safety Initiative Team’s ongoing contributions to improved environmental conditions included 32 inspections, 13 illegal grow operations detected, and 28 repair notices issued. • Electrical Fire Safety Initiative Team mandate expanded to include an inspection role with Bylaws and Fire Prevention, regarding problem properties. • Implemented reporting to enable monthly reviews and reconciliations of fuel consumption. • Provided employees with regular feedback, resulting in improvements in all areas of measured performance with Performance Metrics Software.

• Maintained operations based fleet capacity, engines with tenure at or beyond useful life were replaced with several engines providing economic, social and environmental benefits including: four Administration vehicles, two Inspection vehicles, two Engines and one Technical Rescue vehicle. • Continued to minimize absenteeism related costs through an Attendance Management Program that resulted in achieving a 63% perfect attendance. • Published 23 research articles and/or papers illustrating the evidence-based decision-making used for strategic planning and emergency services activity.

11