2026 - 2030 Surrey Financial Plan

PUBLIC SAFETY—SURREY FIRE SERVICE

• The Community Property Safety Team (“CPST”) treats distressed residential properties with an immediate focus on unsecured or breached abandoned properties by ensuring that property owners maintain their properties in a safety focused manner to reduce the risk of fire, loss of life or injury. Since inception, the CPST identified 2,340 properties: 1,221 were demolished by owners, 531 reoccupied or reinvested, and 368 stabilized without further intervention. The program’s success at identifying distressed properties using predictive modeling combined with progressive security measures, targeted inspections, and reporting of security breaches by fire crews has resulted in a reduction of structure fires in abandoned homes. This program continues to prioritize safety for the public and reduce associated risks to firefighters; and • In coordination with Planning & Development, a fire department access and water supply guideline for developers was created to ensure insurance gradings are sustained and consistent in the development process.

PUBLIC SAFETY

• Distributed targeted fire risk reduction messaging to over 20,000 homes to reduce fire related deaths and injuries at residential properties; • Over 15,000 smoke alarm functionality

• Inspected 8,426 business properties and provided 7,954 safety educational inspection pamphlets to the business proprietors. This ongoing process bolsters the City’s efforts to improve fire code compliance and the resiliency of businesses;

verifications in 2025 to ensure residents have a working early alerting mechanism in the event of a residential fire. The current rate of 63% working smoke alarms found at residential fires continues to be well above the previous rate of 38% in 2010; Over 1,700 residences in proximity to parks with high density tree coverage were sent “FireSmart” messaging to encourage proactive efforts to reduce wildland urban interface fire risk;

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Surrey Fire Services community engagement volunteers promoting smoke alarms through the HomeSafe program

City of Surrey | 2026—2030 Financial Plan | General Operating Fund | Public Safety

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