City of Surrey's 2024 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.

ADMINISTRATION The Administration division is responsible for developing, maintaining and administering the policies, procedures and guidelines at Surrey Fire Service. The management team includes the Fire Chief, Deputy Chiefs, Assistant Chiefs, and several professional and administrative specialists. Administration also operates the Surrey Emergency Program which coordinates emergency preparedness. COMMUNICATIONS The Communications division consists of the Surrey Fire Regional Dispatch providing professional call taking and dispatch service for Surrey Fire and several other municipalities across BC, which represent about 25% of BC’s population. MECHANICAL The Mechanical division employs Emergency Vehicle Technicians who maintain and repair Surrey Fire Service’s fleet of fire apparatus and support vehicles together with an array of specialized equipment.

SUPPORT This division keeps the department running smoothly as they handle much of the paper work and digital records generated by the fire department along with day-to-day administration. OPERATIONS Operations is the largest division and is comprised of three branches: Suppression, Prevention and Training. • Suppression consists of the first responders who attend to all fires, extrication and motor vehicle incidents, medical emergencies, hazardous material response and rescue activities. • Prevention operates four priority areas of services: community risk reduction, public engagement & education programs, fire cause investigation, and general inspection services to secure public safety and code compliance. • Training is responsible for ensuring the skills needed to protect the City from a wide range of hazards which are continually being monitored and administered. Firefighters are provided continuous operational skills maintenance training and new learner skills development throughout their working career.

2024 ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Initiated an employee health screening program which includes: cardiology testing, blood/urine screening, cancer education and medical oversight to all staff • In addition to the women’s firefighting workshops, expanded the program to include anyone wanting to learn about a firefighting career. A total of 26 public firefighting workshops were made available to educate and support career development • Participated in the City’s annual audit of workplace safety management systems and contributed to the successful achievement of the WorkSafe BC Certificate of Recognition (“COR”) • A 10-Year Capital Infrastructure Plan to address fire hall capacity to meet the current and future needs for fire service growth was endorsed by Council this year. The funding for these projects relies on a Fire Protection Development Cost Charge bylaw being adopted as part of the 2025 Development Cost Charges bylaw update

• Distributed targeted fire risk reduction messaging to over 14,000 homes to reduce fire related deaths and injuries • Over 12,700 smoke alarm functionality verifications in 2024 to ensure residents have a working early alerting mechanism in the event of a residential fire. The current rate of 62.9% working smoke alarms found at residentials fires has significantly increased from the previous rate of 38% in 2010 • Inspected 8,034 business properties and provided 7,572 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 • With an increased frequency of large-scale emergencies, Surrey Emergency Program has provided 1,465 hours of emergency preparedness education to the public to support an “all of society” approach to community resilience during emergencies

• The Business Emergency Preparedness Program included delivery of 7,574 disaster recovery educational pamphlets • 394 smoke alarms installed at single-family residences during HomeSafe inspections, including 12,716 smoke alarm verification tests • Operated an in-house Dispatch Services unit which strategically allows for increased control of quality and costs of service for Surrey and over 50 client agencies

• Collaborated with the Planning and Development and Housing & Social Development division to develop a

Temporary Winter Sheltering Application Guideline. This guideline is now being used to process applications from applicants who wish to provide temporary winter shelter spaces in their buildings

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