Osoyoos wants out of a new fire dispatch system being imposed against the town’s will by the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS).
Osoyoos Fire Chief Rick Jones said he’s looking into less costly alternatives than the $1.6 million system contained in the RDOS budget and he has the backing of Osoyoos Mayor Stu Wells.
Wells voted against the RDOS budget March 21 in protest against fire dispatch system, and he was joined by two other board members from Penticton and Summerland.
However, the rest of the board voted in favour and the budget was passed.
Wells said one of the options Osoyoos is considering would involve having fire dispatch done through Surrey. He acknowledges, however, that even if the town finds a cheaper solution, it may be difficult to get permission to leave the system the RDOS is implementing.
Jones said the current system works well for Osoyoos and the new system would require firefighters to carry extra radio equipment, complicating communications and increasing the chance of problems.
Currently when people phone 9-1-1 and indicate the emergency is a fire, a dispatcher in Kelowna pages the Osoyoos firefighters.
Osoyoos firefighters are then in radio contact with Kelowna, Jones said. The Kelowna dispatch monitors the radio discussion, prompting firefighters if necessary, helping if needed and recording calls in case there are legal problems later.
Jones said Osoyoos has upgraded the system, including putting a repeater tower on Anarchist Mountain, providing clear signals.
Under the new RDOS system, Jones said, firefighters will need to monitor two different radio channels using different radios in addition to their pagers.
After the page is received, communication will be shared with firefighters throughout a larger zone that also includes Oliver, Keremeos, Willowbrook and Anarchist Mountain.
“I’ll be able to hear the Oliver calls and vice versa and anybody else who’s on will hear it,” said Jones.
Communication with the local crew will then switch over to another channel using a different radio, he said.
While the goal is to reduce the chance of failure at the top, Jones said the new system just downloads the chance of failure to the bottom.
Problems could result if a volunteer firefighter forgets to turn on the right radio or doesn’t have that radio with him, he said.
“If you were a full-time department, that’s just the nature of the beast, but in volunteer halls it’s going to be a bit of a problem,” he said.
Another problem Jones points to is that the new system will use simplex channels that communicate on lines of sight. That’s a problem in this area, however, where there are hills and mountains to interrupt line-of-sight communication.
Wells noted that a Vancouver fire chief was brought in to provide advice, but the mayor said issues are entirely different in a large urban centre where you can see the smoke from the fire hall and the next fire hall is 16 blocks down the road.
The mayor pointed out the Town of Osoyoos has spent considerable money upgrading its communications over the years and suggested it’s unfair to penalize Osoyoos for the benefit of communities that haven’t made this investment.
Osoyoos generally pays more for regional services than usage by this community would warrant, Wells said. That’s because the town’s share of the costs is determined by assessment, which is higher in Osoyoos.
Wells argues that population and percentage of calls from a community should also be factored into what each community pays.
