Grande Prairie Firefighters Association calls for firefighters, 911 dispatchers to be vaccinated

“We do have some medical training. There are some times, and it’s not every day, but I’ve sat on calls for 20, 30 minutes waiting for an ambulance from, say, Spirit River, so we are providing whatever care to the level that we can to these individuals while we wait.”

He adds if there were a COVID outbreak at a fire department, it could possibly mean an entire platoon was put out of commission, which would hinder their operations.

“We are a limited resource department, meaning that we have 68 suppression members. We’ve had upwards of 10 to 15 at any given time, not on a constant basis, but affected by having either caught (COVID-19) or are close contacts. So, when we start losing exponential number of members, our ability to staff trucks and respond to emergencies and secondary calls is greatly impacted.”

MacDonald adds that several provinces, including British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario, have already deemed firefighters as essential first responders and made them eligible for vaccinations, and he wants the Alberta Government to follow suit.

MacDonald says he doesn’t want to put the firefighters above the general public, especially those who are immunocompromised or have health complications, but that firefighters should be eligible because of the amount of calls they respond to that involves those individuals.

“We go into long term care homes, and I know the vaccines have been received in those facilities, but having a firefighter go around doing their job and spreading [COVID-19] isn’t ideal either.”

MacDonald adds that, if he’s responding to an incident like a car crash, he might not know the individuals involved or whether they are infectious, but he doesn’t have a choice of responding to the scene and doing his job.

On Monday, Premier Jason Kenney said during a press conference that firefighters are young and robust, but MacDonald says the age of his members range from early 20s to late 50s, and while some have been able to access their first doses, many will have to wait until much later before they can be vaccinated.

He says 911 dispatchers, while they don’t go in the field and deal with the public physically, they do tend to work in close quarters, and an outbreak could be detrimental to emergency service operations, especially in Grande Prairie, which serves the entire Northwestern region of Alberta.

“There’s 68 different community departments the [911 dispatch centre] serves… So we have reciprocal agreements with Strathcona County and Parkland County for overflow, so those calls could be routed there, but the ability to dispatch the department to respond to whatever the call may be is virtually impossible. It still requires people in the centre here to do so.”

He adds with the warm, dry spring weather coming up, there’s an elevated risk of grass fires, ice rescues and swift water rescues, which will need local firefighters to handle. MacDonald says fire departments should not be put at risk of becoming short-handed during the next few months while they wait for their members to get vaccinated.

MacDonald has started a letter writing campaign, and is writing the local MLA’s and the Provincial Government, advocating for getting vaccines into the arms of firefighters. He’s also writing the Grande Prairie City Council, and asking they show their support in his plea.

He encourages the public to also write letters and support his call to have firefighters and 911 dispatchers vaccinated as soon as possible.

by Liam Verster

Grande Prairie Firefighters Association calls for firefighters, 911 dispatchers to be vaccinated

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