Our fire department prioritizes helping prepare for, respond to, and recover from major North Shore-wide emergencies. 

The comprehensive Major Emergency Operations Plan and our Pandemic/Infectious Disease Plan are living documents that are continually updated to stay relevant and practical. 

All three North Shore fire departments, along with our partner agencies, strive for continuous improvement in our approaches to emergency management, focusing on organizational and community resiliency.  

We achieve this through committed agency collaboration, ongoing training, and simulated event exercises to ensure we remain operationally ready for emergencies now and into the future. 

Active Threats 

Our fire department trains for many types of emergencies, including active threats.  

While these situations are rare, being prepared is essential. Our active threat program is a joint initiative with the two other North Shore fire departments, the North Vancouver RCMP and the West Vancouver Police Department. It has included cross-training with the Vancouver Police Department.  

Our training aims to minimize casualties in an active threat situation by providing life-saving critical care and moving injured patients out of harm’s way as quickly and safely as possible with aid from the police.  

To help provide life-saving care for victims and protect our firefighters, we have purchased specialized medical backpacks, ballistic vests, and helmets for use during active threat situations.  

Urban Search and Rescue 

In 2023, our Urban Search and Rescue group continued to develop and increase its capabilities, including outfitting a second USAR support trailer, increasing training for the USAR team and expanding to include general crew training.  

This depth further supports our efforts to be ready to respond to a disaster.  

Along with ongoing training with Vancouvers’ Canada Task Force 1 (CANTF-1) Heavy USAR Team, we joined their team for a training exercise in Penticton, which gave our seven-member team valuable experience.  

The three-day exercise involved a fully coordinated response with CANTF-1 to various complex disasters, including a landslide, house collapse, concrete parkade collapse, and a water response to a houseboat — all real-life scenarios that could play out in the District.  

Working alongside some of Canada’s Heavy USAR Teams ensures we operate at our highest capabilities and improves our interoperability and interagency relationships. Our proactive and progressive approach to USAR better positions us to help the community. 

Marine Firefighting  

DNVFRS is an active partner alongside West Vancouver Fire & Rescue, North Vancouver City Fire Department, and Vancouver Fire Rescue Services when responding to marine emergencies. 

In 2023,16 additional North Shore firefighters completed Shipboard Firefighting for Land-Based Firefighters. This training was to prepare for, respond to, and recover from various emergencies on the water. As a result of the latest training, 100 North Shore firefighters, including 90 from DNVFRS, are qualified to this standard.   

The Justice Institute of British Columbia (JIBC) delivered this training program hosted by our partners at Seaspan Vancouver Shipyards. In addition, the DNVFRS trained three in-house instructors for future training opportunities. 

The programs are a model of interagency collaboration, with the following agencies participating in each session: 

• Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue (RCMSAR) 
• Royal Canadian Mounted Police Marine Unit 
• Vancouver Fire & Rescue Services Fireboat 
• Vancouver Police Department Marine Unit 
• Port of Vancouver 

North Shore Emergency Management 

North Shore Emergency Management (NSEM) is the emergency management department for the City of North Vancouver, District of North Vancouver and District of West Vancouver. This tri-municipal program is responsible for emergency planning and preparedness, response and recovery activities, partner engagement, volunteer management and other activities.  

The North Shore Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) is located at the NSEM offices and is maintained and managed by NSEM staff. 

The following is an overview of the collaborative work between DNVFRS and NSEM: 

• NSEM facilitates coordination calls for North Shore municipalities and partners to discuss current risks and preparedness tactics during the wildfire season, extreme weather and emerging events.  
• The Disaster and Climate Risk and Resilience Assessment is a core plan developed by NSEM with hazard-specific contributions made by DNVFRS.   
• Emergency Social Services is a core operational program managed by NSEM staff and supported by dedicated volunteers who provide immediate support to evacuees.   
• NSEM has led the development of the District of North Vancouver Active Threat Playbook and facilitated a strategic tabletop exercise that included tactical participation from DNVFRS.  
• NSEM provides self-paced and facilitated training for all functional EOC roles.  
• NSEM led North Shore-wide participation for Exercise Coastal Response – a provincial EOC exercise specific to a seismic event.  
• Supporting resilience and disaster risk reduction through grant-based projects like the North Shore Extreme Heat mapping project. 

Profile: Ryan McMurray – Urban Search and Rescue Instructor   

DNVFRS firefighter Ryan McMurray didn’t always understand what the thick-accented Australian firefighters were saying, but he still returned home with valuable knowledge and experience about urban search and rescue (USAR).  

"The Australians have lots of different terms. If they can shorten something, they will. Or if they can add a "y" or bring it down to one syllable, they’ll do it. Big fans of the acronyms for sure," he says.  

In 2017, McMurray did a one-year exchange to study and train with Australia’s renowned Heavy Urban Search and Rescue (HUSAR), an internationally accredited team, and bring home lessons learned to share with DNVFRS.  

Living near a tectonic fault line sparked his interest in urban search and rescue. If an earthquake strikes, the closest HUSAR team is based in Vancouver, and they may not be able to help. The next-closest team is in Calgary. His question: What do we do in the meantime?   

After his stint down under, McMurray continued USAR training and is now an instructor. When he returned, Fire Chief Brian Hutchinson encouraged him to assemble a team of DNVFRS members and municipal staff trained and equipped to respond to emergencies such as earthquakes.  

Last year, DNVFRS completed outfitting two response-ready structural collapse/USAR trailers and has grown the team to 18 members. They have also begun training all crews to support USAR.  

"I am proud to say we have the capacity for medium-level USAR operations as per Public Safety Canada guidelines, meaning we can break through concrete, shore up a building and do limited search capabilities," says McMurray. "We are in a better place to help the community."