Public Safety Report for January – February 2016

PUBLIC SAFETY REPORT FOR JANUARY – FEBRUARY 2016

RECOMMENDATION:

THAT the Committee receives this report for information.

CHIEF ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICER COMMENTS

I concur with the recommendation

PURPOSE OF REPORT:

To update the Committee on the operations of the Fire Department.

DISCUSSION:

Fire Prevention, Inspection & Public Education:

• Regular fire inspections are being conducted as per our frequency of inspection guideline.
• The department is currently reviewing plans and attending meetings with municipal staff and developers on 4 projects.
• The department delivered 5 presentations to preschool groups totaling 74 children and 40 adults.
• During this period no fire investigations were conducted.

At the beginning of January a new Social Media Annual Plan was implemented. Each month in the plan has a designated safety related theme. Each theme is then broken down into weekly themes with safety information that are posted to our department’s website, Facebook site and through our Twitter account. A new program was also introduced to our inspection program which tracks the compliance and safety of the facilities that are inspected. January saw a compliance of 95.47% through 27 Inspections while February saw 95.96% through 19 inspections.

Robert G. Marshall, Fire Prevention Officer

Training Division:

• The following three members completed NFPA 1001 Firefighter Level II Training: Colin Iwaskow, Reed MacPhail and Kyle Reid
• 4 Members completed JIBC First Responder Training and are now licensed responders with the Province of BC
• 10 Members completed Incident Command System (ICS) 100
• 28 Members attended BC Hydro Electrical Safety
• 3 Members attended a one day course on Fire Dynamics
• 5 Members completed Red Cross First Responder Program
• 9 Members attended a one day Incident Safety Officer (ISO) Course instructed by Vancouver Island Emergency Response Academy hosted at View Royal Fire Department
• 10 Members attended a one day Mass Casualty Course instructed by BC Ambulance, hosted at View Royal Fire Department
• Additional 1001 Training for new recruits continues on Monday Evenings
• Additional 1001 Training for Firefighters continues on Tuesday Evenings
• Additional Driver Training continues on off drill nights getting Firefighters ready for Safe Operation of a Fire Apparatus (SOFA) in early March
• 28 Members attended a one hour session on the CREST Radio Network
• 5 Members attended a Low Wide High Rise course at Esquimalt Fire
• 3 Members completed NFPA 1001 Module 1 practical
• 6 Members completed NFPA 1001 Module 6 practical
• 1 Member completed NFPA 1001 Module 4 practical
• 1 Member completed NFPA 1001 Module 2 practical
• 1 Member completed NFPA 1001 Module 1 written

Heath Bevan, Training Officer

Emergency Program:

The following are the most noteworthy activities and events for the Emergency Program this reporting period:

• EP Officer attended two LGEPAC meetings.
• Two Emergency Preparedness workshops delivered by EP Officer at Public Safety Building. Twenty-four residents attended.
• Deputy and ESSD quarterly meeting with EP Officer.
• Cindy Heslop (DEPC) is on LOA for medical reasons.
• EP Officer and ESS Directors met twice with EP Fair Committee to plan for this year’s event at JDF.
• EP Officer chaired two REPAC Educational Facilities WG meetings at PSB.

Emergency Program Training:

• ICS 100 – 2 FF, 1 Radio
• First in to the EOC: 16 Staff
• Resource Acquisition: 1 ESS
• Site Management: 4 ESS
• ESS Documentation (in-house): 9 ESS

Emergency Support Services:

The ESS team had no callouts this reporting period. Two monthly meetings were held, one at View Royal PSB and the other in Colwood at JDF and both were well attended. Two new volunteers were recruited. Additional activities are as follows:

• 3 work parties
• 3 ESSD and Section Chiefs meetings
• Denny’s signed up as new food supplier.
• Volunteers assisted with 2 Emergency Preparedness Workshops
• JDF Sr Centre ESS Exercise.
• 2 ESS attended a briefing on the Christchurch earthquake
• 7 ESS attended presentation on Red Cross Disaster Relief: Nepal

Emergency Communications Team:

• Problems with South Antenna have reemerged and again will need to be rectified by Radioworks.
• Members volunteered to run communications at Pacific Cup Hockey Tourney.
• Net controller, Inter-municipal net.
• Weekly nets on View Royal frequencies.
• Weekly check in with inter-municipal net.

Troy Mollin, Emergency Program Assistant Cindy Heslop, Deputy Emergency Coordinator Ruth Reynolds, Emergency Support Services Director

Pre-fire Planning/ Mapping/Fire Dispatch Services/ Hydrants:

Four new pre-fire plans were completed during the reporting period, including a fire department site plan for the Eagle Creek complex as well as plans for Quality Foods and the common parkade serving Eagle Creek Village. These new pre-fire plans will assist the fire department response in the event of a fire related emergency at Eagle Creek Village.

An additional eighteen pre-fire plans were modified in the last two months.

The fire department has worked with its mapping contractor to incorporate a number of addressing changes into our map books, including the renaming of the 2400 block of Chilco Road to Lund Road. Additional changes will be made to the map books to incorporate street and addressing changes that will occur as a result of the new Thetis Vale phases 6 and 7.

The department continues to work with Saanich Dispatch to manage any issues with dispatch services.

The department is working with CRD Water to determine possible locations for new hydrants to be installed in 2016.

David Brown, Pre-planner

Building Department:

For the month of January, the Building Department has sought changes to the way it reports. Below are two tables indicating the volume of different daily activities that are conducted within the office and the Municipality for the months of January and February 2016. Below each table will be a brief description of items that may need clarification or further information. Following these tables is a summary of permits including the number of permits issued, construction value totals and permit value totals.

Commercial Occupancy inspections included preliminary inspections for Quality Foods, Tim Hortons, Cobbs, Subway and the Parkade for Eagle Creek.

Special projects included assisting the Finance Department with the Building Department Forecast and project managing the completion of the suites located in the Public Safety Building.

A single Commercial Occupancy inspection took place in February for Ashley Furniture.

Special projects included further assistance to the Finance Department, continuing management of the completion of the suites and working in conjunction with the Fire Department and Bylaw Department in facilitating a safe move into the Youth Correction Center for the occupants of “Tent City”.

January Permit Summary

February Permit Summary

Future reports will be further modified for content as requested by Council.

Gary Faykes, Building Inspector

Bylaw Division:

January and February files are consistent with 2015 for complaints - 34 for January and 33 for February as compared to 42 for January and 31 for February 2015. Of note within this reporting period is the increase in the transient population migrating out to the Westshore and in particular View Royal (Portage Park). This can be attributed to the warm climate this year. As of this writing the Bylaw Division (Director of Protective Services) in conjunction with the Our Place society are working towards a notification process and procedure for assisting these people to find temporary shelter as the Youth Correction Center 94 Talcott Road comes online.

13 business licenses were issued and 4 inspections conducted in January/February. Six business licenses were issued to Eagle Creek Village which required inspections from municipal, regional and provincial inspectors prior to licenses being issued.

The 40 Day for Life Vigil is at mid-point, ending March 20th, at the intersection of Island Highway and Helmcken Road. Calls to keep the peace and complaints from residents and passenger traffic are at a low. This can be attributed to the proactive efforts being conducted jointly between the RCMP and Bylaw Division.

In the coming months we will be working with the Finance Department to consolidate business licenses and secondary suite permits that have not been renewed and are now past due and also providing information to Engineering and Planning Departments in their review of Business License Bylaw #580 and Streets and Traffic Bylaw # 609.

The Bylaw Division continues to act as an intermediary between municipal, regional, provincial and federal departments.

Future reports will be modified for content as requested by Council.

Enzo Calla, Bylaw Enforcement Officer

Directors Comments:

Considerable focus was directed towards the transition of the Victoria tent city occupants to new accommodations at the former Youth Correction Center, 94 Talcott Road. Daily and weekly consultation with Our Place, BC Housing and RCMP continue and are maintaining a favorable transition. The Fire Prevention and Building Department are conducting walkthrough fire and building safety inspections on the site every two days. Residents and staff have been very receptive to the site visits. It should be noted that no calls for service, either emergency or non-emergency have been received from the site.

Congratulations to Firefighters COLEMAN, IWASKOW and TAYLOR for their recent participation and completion of the Vancouver Wall Center Firefighter Stair Climb. Over $6000 has been raised by the team for donation to BC Cancer charities.

Also of note, the recognition received from the Eagle Creek developer towards our Building Official Gary FAYKES. It was noted that Inspector FAYKES delivered significant customer service and facilitated a smooth occupancy process and approvals for the first tenants.

SUBMITTED BY: Paul Hurst, Director of Protective Services

REVIEWED BY: Kim Anema, Chief Administrative Officer