Rising medical response calls is putting financial and operational pressure on the Castlegar Fire Department and city, according to its 2024 year-end report.
Fire Chief Sam Lattanzio presented the department’s 2024 year-end statistics during the January 13, 2025, council meeting.
The department’s 2024 year-to-date incident call volume was 876.
Of those calls, 640 came through 9-1-1. This represents a 12 per cent increase in calls coming through the emergency number compared to 2023, which saw 572.
The department did see a decrease in fire-related calls in 2024, receiving just 62—a 62 per cent reduction from 2023’s 119.
Of the fire-related calls, only 23 were reportable to the Office of the Fire Commissioner. In 2023, that number was 62.
The reason for the nearly 62 per cent reduction in fire-related calls is that in 2023 the city dealt with one individual setting several fires throughout the area.
While the number of reportable fires in city decreased, the losses were significantly more, totaling a staggering $1.5 million. For comparison, in 2023 the amount was $643,000.
There was also a decrease in false alarms, with the department reporting 51 in 2024 compared to 59 in 2023.
By the end of 2024, CFD had completed 221 commercial fire inspections, which represents a 17.6 per cent increase from 2023.
Lattanzio says 43 per cent of all of last year’s calls were medical response calls, which he notes have a significant financial impact on the city, although he couldn’t specify the exact amount.
Councillor Sue Heaton-Sherstobitoff questioned the financial impact, asking if the city should engage with the Ministry of Health to find a solution to relieve the some of the pressure.
“So is that a discussion we have with the ministry? Because it’s costing us more. Do we get more ambulances? What’s the answer here? Because you’re firefighters, and you do have to do medical things, but it seems like more and more of your time is spent doing that,” she said.
“Firefighters are burning out. They can’t get retention because people just don’t want to do that—they’re firefighters for a reason. I think we do have to look at our level of services that we provide and what the ministry should be providing to our community.”
CAO Chris Barlow says such conversations are a priority for this year, adding that the city has concerns about the department’s increasing call volume potentially leading to burnout.
“We do feel it’s one of the components also of potential burnout of our volunteer fire department, too, if we’re responding to all these medical calls. And that’s definitely one of the things that we’ll be diving into this year. We want to look internally first to understand the cost, understand the call volumes, and what the impacts are or aren’t.”
You can read the full report here.
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