2018 Annual Financial Report

CITY OF SURREY OVERVIEWS FIRE DEPARTMENT

The Surrey Fire Service’s mission is to protect life, property and the environment by responding to emergencies, ensuring regulatory compliance and developing community education. Surrey Fire Service helps to make our City a safe place to live. In addition to the Department’s Administration Division, there are two other divisions which include:

OPERATIONS 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 above activities handled by the Suppression branch, the Operations division is also responsible for the Prevention branch and the Training branch. Through these programs, City staff and the large network of volunteers provide valuable community emergency services.

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 8 A C C O M P L I S H M E N T S • Continued to establish pilot projects in relation to an alternative, more efficient approach for Fire Services and Ambulance Services involvement in responding to medical emergencies in Surrey. • Expanded on programs delivered by volunteers to include telephone campaigns to communicate important emergency preparedness, smoke alarm, and fire and fall prevention messages to community groups. • Established a Community Property Safety Team (CPST) to treat distressed properties with an immediate focus on unsecured or breached to reduce the risk of fire, loss of life or injury: 424 properties identified by the CPSTeam, 203 properties demolished as a direct result of the CPSTeam actions, 52 properties re-invested, 133 properties secured - 4 abandoned structure fires in last 6 months (prior average 24 / year). • Reduced fire related death and injuries in residential properties through the continued refinement of the Home Safe Program. abandoned residential properties by ensuring that property owners maintain their properties in order

• Inspected 7,197 business properties and provided 6,652 safety educational inspection pamphlets to the business proprietors to improve the resiliency of businesses in the event of a disaster or major incidents. • Decreased the rate of residential fire death/injury per 10,000 residents by 54% from 2006. • Decreased the rate of residential fire per 1,000 residential structures by 62.4% from 2006. • Delivered 26 Surrey Emergency Preparedness presentations to 756 attendees. • Coordinated 16 Level 1 emergency support service responses with 71 displaced residents. • Successfully redeployed HomeSafe program resources to targeted community safety initiatives. • Installed 732 smoke alarms and conducted HomeSafe inspections including the 14,534 smoke alarm initiative responses. • Promoted smoke alarm awareness campaign directed to 3,610 homeowners who visited City Hall during the annual property tax season.

• Published 13 research articles and/or papers illustrating the evidence based decision-making used for strategic planning and emergency activity. • Continued to incorporate the use of the anti- idling power units technology with 2018 Fire apparatus purchased as part of existing Vehicle Replacement Plan. • Completed all scheduled staff professional development including internally designed Evidence Base Decision Making, Fire officer program for 28 members, and certifications or diploma programs for eight members. • Continued to refine the Attendance Management Program that resulted in achieving a 56.4% perfect attendance. • Completed construction of the new fire department Central Training Facility classroom and office building. • Completed the design requirements for a secondary City Emergency Operations Centre. • Improved the efficiency of the City’s Emergency Social Service response capabilities.

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