The District of North Vancouver Fire & Rescue Services (DNVFRS) continually seeks out and provides opportunities to attract and develop our staff.

This process begins with our Tri-Municipal Recruitment partnership with the District of West Vancouver and City of North Vancouver to recruit high-caliber and diverse individuals. This recruitment program has been in place for several years and continues to foster collaboration among all North Shore Fire Departments.

In 2022, DNVFRS’ Officer Development Course (ODC) trained and certified 12 DNVFRS and 3 City of North Vancouver firefighters to NFPA 1021 Standard for Fire Professional Qualifications, Fire Officer Level II.

In November, all company officers attended our Annual Officer Meeting. This one-day session, held over two-days to accommodate all four of our platoons, allows officers to attend from outlying fire stations and opposing platoons, to receive information on updated training and operational procedures. Continuing education sessions were also provided in the areas of mental wellness, media relations, and marginalized/vulnerable citizen groups. This also included presentations from the RCMP, BC Ambulance Service, and local media.

Training

To ensure we deliver the highest level of service that our community deserves, the DNVFRS provides comprehensive ongoing training to its members. In 2022, the DNVFRS training budget was $425,000, which allowed DNVFRS to provide 12,226 hours of specialized training to 134 firefighters.

Specialized Training (Overview)

Each year, DNVFRS provides specialized training in multiple fire and rescue disciplines, including fire behaviour, swift-water rescue, high-angle rope rescue, vehicle extrication, fire ground operations, wildland firefighting, emergency vehicle operator and emergency medical responder.

DNVFRS professionally certified instructors deliver these sessions that typically take place either at a dedicated training centre or at various offsite training locations within its response area.

To expand its operational capacity and effectiveness when responding to emergencies, DNVFRS provided its firefighters with training in several new and expanding areas in 2022.  These areas of training included structural collapse operations, wildland hydro-sub training, and active deadly threat training integrated with the RCMP.

Here is an overview of the specialized training we provided to our firefighters in 2022.

Specialized Training by Discipline (Top Five Disciplines)

Foundational Skills Training (Overview)

In addition to specialized training, DNVFRS firefighters receive a significant amount of regular, on-the-job training that supports and maintains their foundational skills. This training includes ladder operations, incident command training, traffic safety, radio communications, hose deployment, gas and electrical safety, and building construction.

This training ensures DNVFRS firefighters maintain the required competency standards for full-service firefighters, as outlined by the BC Office of the Fire Commissioner in the BC Fire Service Minimum Training Standards (Formerly ‘the Playbook’).

Here is an overview of the foundational skills training we provided in 2022.

Foundational Skills Training by Subject (Top Five Subjects)

Interagency Training Highlights

DNVFRS engaged in training events with many of its regional emergency partners and regular training initiatives with its fellow North Shore fire departments. Some examples of this training include:

Canada Task Force 1 (CANTF1) — Monthly training with Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services, Vancouver Police Department, British Columbia Ambulance Services, and North Shore fire departments

Municipal and Metro Vancouver park staff training — Includes radio communications, fall restraint, swift-water awareness, wildland firefighting, and emergency medical first aid

JIBC Shipboard Firefighting for Land Based Firefighters — Training involving all three North Shore fire departments, Seaspan Vancouver Ship Yards, Vancouver Fire & Rescue Services, North Vancouver RCMP, Vancouver Police and  RCM Search and Rescue

Justice Institute of BC (JIBC) Partnership

The JIBC is a provincially recognized and industry leader of emergency service educational programs and training.

In 2020, we initiated a fire training partnership agreement with the JIBC that recognizes DNVFRS as an authorized provider of accredited training courses for the JIBC. This partnership will enable us to work together with the JIBC to enhance and improve the quality of fire training programs available to our region’s fire service agencies.

New Maplewood Fire & Rescue Training Centre

In early 2018, we began planning for the new Maplewood Fire and Rescue Centre to consolidate our current Fire Station #2 (Lynnmour) and Training Center on St. Denis Avenue and centrally locate headquarters and administrative staff from Fire Station #1 in Lynn Valley.

Combining a fire station, training centre, and administrative functions into one new facility will improve fire response times, create operational efficiencies, and optimize the capital investment over the long term.

The sustainable, energy-efficient 45,000-sq.ft.-facility will be made to post-disaster standards in order to maintain services in emergencies such as power outages and earthquakes. The new building is anticipated to have a 71% reduction in energy use and a 92% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to the existing buildings being replaced.

The construction of Maplewood Fire and Rescue Centre began in February 2022 and the anticipated completion date is early 2024.

Physical and Mental Health and Wellness

In early 2022, our Health and Wellness Working Group created the DNVFRS Health and Wellness Strategic Initiatives Plan 2022-2027, commonly called the 5-Year Well-being Plan. The working group also prepared a supplemental DNVFRS Health and Wellness Operational Plan 2022- 2027 to address the actions necessary to implement objectives supporting the DNVFRS Fire and Rescue Strategic Plan 2020-2025.

The DNVFRS Fire and Rescue Strategic Plan 2020-2025 included several strategic priorities, including Priority 2D: “promote the physical and mental health and well-being of our employees.” A direct action from 2D is to “develop and implement a comprehensive 5-Year Well-being Plan to improve and support the mental, physical and behavioural health of all personnel.”

DNVFRS recognizes that fire service personnel are highly susceptible to occupational stress injuries, mental health injuries, and physical injuries. As such, DNVFRS continues to proactively take steps to address the health and well-being of its personnel, and to help prepare them for duty through training, education, support, treatment, and rehabilitation. The strategies, objectives and actions to address these issues are outlined in the 5-Year Well-being Plan. As a component of this Plan, the working group developed a ‘mission statement’ to guide their process:

Mission Statement

Advancing physical and mental health for the long-term resiliency and well-being of the DNVFRS.

Strategic Objective #1: Support Physical Health and Wellness

The physical demands of the fire service are immense and never-ending. DNVFRS’s ability to provide excellent service to its community is connected to the physical health and wellness of our personnel.

DNVFRS will support the physical health and wellness of its personnel by promoting physical fitness training, a culture of ongoing health screening and assessments, education and information on health and fitness, and access to treatment and rehabilitation services.

Strategic Objective #2: Support Mental Health and Wellness

Our firefighters are exposed to a high level of potentially traumatic events impacting their mental health and in turn have a statistically higher incidence of mental health injuries than the average population. Workplace hazards include but are not limited to the cumulative effects of shift work, sleep loss, traumatic exposures, and operational and organizational stressors. These hazards can lead to adverse physiological and mental health impacts on DNVFRS personnel.

DNVFRS will promote evidence-based mental health and wellness by raising awareness of the importance of mental health, providing employees with education and information on mental health, facilitating access to culturally competent internal and external support systems, and supporting members through mental health injury and or recovery. DNVFRS is committed to creating a safe and open environment regarding mental health issues by working to reduce the stigma associated with mental health.

Diversity and Inclusion

Women and visible minorities represent a small percentage of the total DNVFRS staff. We continue to reach out to the community and encourage everyone to consider the benefits of a career in the fire service. Recently, we developed a recruitment and outreach program with a goal to attract potential future firefighters from our local high school and post-secondary student populations. At the DNVFRS we strive to create an inclusive working environment by actively valuing the differences that diversity brings, because everyone is welcome on our team.

Here are select events we held or attended in 2022:

• Camp Ignite — An annual camp for young women between 16-18 who want to learn firefighting skills and techniques, which we sponsored a local high school student. We also hosted an orientation session with the 2022 participants from West Vancouver and the City of North Vancouver at our training centre
• JIBC Informational Workshop — We participated in workshops this year with our Training and Public Outreach Divisions, and students currently enrolled in the Justice Institute of BC’s Career firefighter technologies program.
• Career Fairs — North Vancouver School District’s career fairs showcase and outline what a career in the fire service and opportunities with DNVFRS look like

Career Outreach -Work Experience Opportunities

Throughout the year, we enjoy giving local young people an inside look at the challenges and rewards of a firefighting career.  This includes a “behind the scenes” look at a day in the life of DNVFRS through the following programs:

• Bring Our Kids to Work Day — Grade 9 Students spend a day participating in firefighting demonstrations and activities, as well as exposures to careers of service in Local Government.
• Work experience program — During our New Recruit Onboarding Training Program, we invite students from the local high schools and Capilano University to participate in all activities. The training is over 12 weeks from January to March, and we had 20 students gain experience and information on a career with the District of North Vancouver.