TPFFA members were kept busy this afternoon, responding to four separate fire/rescue emergencies within the span of 3 hours. 

 

Just after 2 PM a call was received that there were multiple children swimming in an unsafe portion of the Burntwood River. TPFFA members launched the rescue boat and made contact with those involved and informed them of the dangers of swimming in the river unsupervised. While this incident was happening, TPFFA members received a secondary call for service by way of a residential fire alarm at a residence over in the Burntwood area. 

 

While attending the house alarm, members received a third concurrent call with reports of a large brush fire in the Juniper area. A large plume of gray smoke could be seen from a distance prompting the duty officer to place a general alarm. Thankfully, due to hard work from the duty crew and responding “off duty” members and members of our TFFA auxiliary component, the fire was contained to an area of approximately 16,000 sq ft, with only minor damage to some adjacent property lines such as fences, etc…

 

As a result of these multiple fire/rescue emergencies happening at once, multiple members were requested to come in for overtime to ensure we had enough staffing to respond. 

Our membership is constantly spread thin as we are currently holding a 59% vacancy rate with only 10 out of 24 firefighting positions filled which requires 5-6 members to work overtime every day in order to maintain our staffing minimums, this is leading to a physically exhausted and mentally burnt out membership, and is not a viable staffing model moving forward. The City of Thompson cannot continue to rely on overtime to ensure safe staffing ratios, it is only a matter of time before tragedy strikes as a result of this unsustainable operational plan. Mayor and Council need to act NOW and come up with a plan to give us the appropriate resources we need in order to continue to safely do our jobs, and continue serving the residents of Thompson in a high capacity.