A visit to the Montreal Emergency Preparedness Centre

L-R: CSL Public Security Chief Jerome Pontbriand, Montreal Fire Department Section Chief Gordon Routley, CSL Cllrs. Glenn J. Nashen and Ruth Kovac, FD Assistant Director Rick Liebman, CSL PS Director Jordy Reichson

As Emergency Preparedness Week is marked across Canada I took part in a site tour of the Montreal Agglomeration Emergency Preparedness Centre located at the Fire Department’s headquarters on Mount Royal.  Housed in a stately, mansion-like structure on sprawling grounds rolling down to Park Ave, the centre is ready, 24/7 in case of a large scale crisis anywhere on the Island of Montreal.

The mission of the Emergency Preparedness Centre (Centre de sécurité Civile) is to ensure the prevention of major accidents and to prepare boroughs, suburban cities  and central city services related to major risks and provide strategic support to the coordination of stakeholders in civil safety during disasters and disaster recovery.

While the website of the Emergency Preparedness Centre is full of information and resources, it is quite absurd that none of this information is available in English.  I was sure to point this out to fire officials on the tour, as I have done in the past.

Another excellent feature launched some months ago by the centre is an emergency notification service, also known as Reverse 911. This service will make outbound calls to thousands of agglomeration residents’ landline phones to signal a large scale emergency, such as warnings to stay indoors in case of chemical explosion, or to evacuate, or to boil water.  You can also manually register your cell phone for SMS and voice notifications.

Inexcusably, the registration page is not available in English however emergency centre officials assured me that the outbound calls are in French as well as in English.

I find it amazing that millions of dollars are well invested in emergency preparedness to save lives and property unless of course you cannot speak or read French, in which case does the city of Montreal really care about you at all?

I attended this otherwise excellent tour and information meeting with Cote Saint-Luc Councillor Ruth Kovac, Public Safety Director Jordy Reichson and Chief Jerome Pontbriand. Hats off to the personnel of the centre in doing fine work to try to keep us all safe.

Emergency evacuation assistance program

The Montreal Fire Department offers persons living with a handicap or reduced mobility the possibility to be registered into a computerized data base that assists firefighters in locating and evacuating them in case of emergency. The information collected is reserved for fire department use only and is kept confidential. This is a free and efficient service offered by your fire department.

 

Le Service de sécurité incendie de Montréal (SIM) offre aux personnes en situation de handicap ou de mobilité réduite la possibilité de s’inscrire à une base de données informatisée qui permet aux pompiers de les repérer et de les aider à évacuer en cas d’urgence. L’information recueillie est à l’usage exclusif du SIM et est tenue confidentielle. C’est un service efficace et gratuit!

 

Click here for all the details.  

Cliquez ici pour toutes les informations.

 

Fire ravages Sir Walter Scott apartment

Fire broke out just before sunrise on Tuesday morning in a top floor apartment on Sir Walter Scott Avenue.  Cote Saint-Luc Director of Public Safety Jordy Reichson indicated that the call came in around 5:35AM and when the Montreal Fire Department arrived, smoke and flames were already visible from outside. They immediately called a first alarm with probability of spreading and at 5:55AM raised the alert to a second alarm.

Fire guts apartment in Cote Saint-Luc forcing tenants out into the cold

The blaze started in a fourth floor apartment due to an oil fire on the stove top. It caused extensive damage to the apartment, as well as three other units on the floor and the units directly below.

All residents were cared for by the Red Cross, which is standard Fire Department policy for displaced persons.  The Red Cross officials helped residents with arrangements to stay with family or friends. The residents of the fire apartment were transported to hospital with smoke inhalation and minor injuries.

The fire started on the stove and quickly engulfed the entire apartment

The Montreal Fire Department intervention prevention teams, CSL Public Safety and CSL Urban Planning were on scene to work with the building owner on any required follow-up, including barricading broken windows and the roof (which was cut open for ventilation) and other matters. CSL Public Works was informed to clear the catch basins in the area to allow for drainage of water.

According to CTV News, one person tried to put out the flames but was unsuccessful. He ended up cutting himself. Firefighters were able to extinguish the fire within an hour, and were also able to contain the fire within the kitchen. Other residents of the building should be able to return home without any difficulty.

Three people, who are all believed to live in the apartment where the fire began, were all taken to hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.

CTV also reported that the apartment where the fire broke out had a heat detector, but was not equipped with a smoke detector

 

vCOP to assist Montreal Fire Department in smoke detector blitz

Members of Cote Saint-Luc volunteer Citizens on Patrol will have the chance to work side by side with the Montreal Fire Department this weekend in a blitz to get all residents to change their smoke detector batteries coinciding with the change to Daylight Savings Time.

vCOP will go door to door speaking to as many residents as possible to remind every one of the importance of keeping their detectors functional year round.

vCOP has assisted CSL Public Security and Montreal Police during its 6 1/2 years of service but this is the first time that it will have the opportunity to directly assist the Fire Department.

While our EMS volunteers used to work closely with our CSL Fire Department that all ended 10 years ago with the forced mergers and the transfer of fire services from CSL to Montreal.

I’m very proud that the services offered by vCOP continues to expand helping to make Cote Saint-Luc the safest community in the region.

When I launched the concept in 2006 I had a goal to recruit 100 volunteers and acquire several vehicles and bicycles to allow these patrollers to circulate at anytime of day or night.  I am so pleased that we have been able to expand our offering in the areas of emergency preparedness, searching for missing persons, distribution of water during service interruption, protecting residents from downed power lines, cables, trees and branches and now with fire safety and prevention.

Hats off to our nearly 100 volunteers and to our team leaders and supervisors.  Their efforts are making a difference in the lives of Cote Saint-Lucers on a daily basis.

If you’ve had any experiences with vCOP and would like to thank them too please click on ‘Leave a Comment’.

The great evacuation: Tonight at 7 pm

 

 

 

The Montreal Fire Department (Service de sécurité incendie de Montréal,  SIM), in collaboration with the Department of Public Security (Ministère de la Sécurité publique), is organizing The Big Evacuation tonight, for residents of the Montreal Agglomeration. During this event, citizens and especially families will be asked to put into practice their fire escape plan, all on the same day and at the same time.

 

The Big Evacuation is part of National Fire Prevention Week and Montréal’s Fire prevention month. To learn more about this activity and prepare to participate, please view the video available here and visit the Web site of the Ministère de la Sécurité publique.

 

During the 2011 edition of The Big Evacuation, the SIM had organized supervised evacuation exercises in three boroughs and one municipality of the agglomeration of Montréal. The event was such a success that they are repeating the experience. You will see below the areas chosen this year. Please note that these sectors have been selected based on the number of fires that occurred.

 

• Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough
  Place de Granby, between Pierre-De Coubertin and Hochelaga
• Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension borough
  Avenue Champagneur, between d’Anvers and de Liège Ouest
• Lachine borough
  Rue Louis-Paré, starting at 26^e Avenue
• Sud-Ouest borough
  Rue Jacques-Hertel, between Hadley and Eadie
• Ville-Marie borough
  Rue Montcalm, between Sherbrooke Est and Ontario Est
• Town of Kirkland
  Acres Street, between Oriole and Salaberry Boulevard
• City of Dollard-des-Ormeaux
  Brunswick Boulevard, between Davignon and Deacon

Pumper 229 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Photo of the Week #10: A Symbol of Loss

This week’s photo shows the flag outside Fire Station 78 at half mast in honour of firefighter Thierry Godfrind who was laid to rest earlier the same day in a civic funeral.

The sun is beginning to set on a sad day while the flowers out front and the lowered flag catch the last lights.

The tradition of flying the flag at half-mast began in Canada in 1612 and continues to this day, around the world, as a symbol of mourning and honouring the dead.

 

Sad farewell to a fallen firefighter

Montreal firefighter Thierry Godfrind who fell in the line of duty last Friday

A civic funeral will be held today at the Notre-Dame Basilica for a Montreal firefigher who died last week after he was struck by a fire truck.  Thierry Godfrind, 39, died Friday while responding to a call in the St-Laurent borough.  At the time, firefighters were responding to a call at a residential building.

Condolences may be sent via email to sim@ville.montreal.qc.ca.

Godfrind is the first firefighter to die on the job in Montreal since 2006.

Being a firefighter is far from an easy job.  The training in arduous and the risks are great.  Each call brings a new challenge, a new risk.  Montreal firefighters are at the service of all residents of the City of Montreal and the suburban municipalities, such as Cote Saint-Luc as well as all who work and visit the Montreal Agglomeration. Each of them serves with compassion and devotion and for that they have my appreciation and respect.

I wish to publicly express my sincere condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Thierry Godfrind.  A loss like this affects our community and my constituents share in the grief and sadness.

Our own local emergency responders including our Emergency Medical Services volunteers, volunteer Citizens on Patrol and Public Security agents work side by side with the Montreal firefighters from Station 78 on Cote Saint-Luc Road and other stations.  As such they too share in the pain at the loss of a fellow emergency responder. I am proud that these local volunteers and professionals will attend the civic funeral today under the leadership of Public Safety Director Jordy Reichson and Chief Jerome Pontbriand representing the City of Cote Saint-Luc.

Related articles

• A lifelong dream ends in line-of-duty-death
• Montreal firefighter dies after being hit by fire truck (cbc.ca)
• Funeral set for Montreal firefighter (metronews.ca)

English translations progressing on FD website

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Fire department website promotes changing batteries – in French only

After much cajoling by myself, Councillor Dida Burku, Mayor Anthony Housefather and the CSL City Council, the Montreal Fire Department has finally translated a significant portion of its website from French only. This is a positive step.   I, and many other English-speaking residents, appreciate this attention which was long overdue.

However, the FD must be reminded to keep it up to date to inform residents of safety messages and to educate the public in all aspects of fire safety regulations and home safety procedures.

Unfortunately they seem to have neglected to translate information about checking smoke detector batteries on their English homepage.

Last week, they ran a sensitization campaign to verify smoke detectors during the Spring Forward changing of the clocks.  On the French homepage the top article reads: On change l’heure, on vérifie son avertisseur!.  However, if you click on ENGLISH (from the French homepage or from the French article cited above) there is no such article in English.

It seems that the Montreal FD targeted only one language group and ignored the other.  Obviously this is unacceptable.

Thank you Montreal FD for translating the site to be significantly bilingual.  But please make a greater effort to ensure that it is kept up to date.  This is a matter of safety and security for all Montreal Island residents regardless of language.

Your Home Evacuation Plan – Fire Prevention - Ministère de la Sécurité publique

 

 

 

 

 

The Montreal Fire Department’s French only website is promoting “la grande evacuation” taking place on October 12, 2011.  The Quebec Minister of Public Safety only has this information in French as well.

I was able to find this information in English, although it does not pertain to the events happening on October 12: Your Home Evacuation Plan – Fire Prevention - Ministère de la Sécurité publique.

What a shame that these major government departments, and the Quebec Government in general, still cannot understand the importance of communicating with Quebec’s English-speaking population (who pay the same taxes as all Quebecers but obviously receive less service).

 

CSL Emergency Preparedness – Always Planning

The Emergency Preparedness Committee (EPC), chaired by Councillor Glenn J. Nashen, was tasked with updating the city’s Emergency Preparedness Plan. The previous plan was adopted during the merger and included the Towns of Hampstead and Montreal West. Prior to that, the city had its own plan, first adopted in the early 1970′s.

In 2007 and 2008, a working group of city staff met with the firm Multi-Risk International, which was contracted to develop a new plan for the city. The plan was produced in June 2008. The Multi-Risk International plan and the pre-merger Côte Saint-Luc plan served as valuable resources and references in the development and update of this document.

The new Emergency Preparedness Plan was reviewed intensively by Mayor Housefather and members of Council, particularly Nashen and Ruth Kovac (both members of the Emergency Preparedness Committee since 1990 and have attended Emergency Preparedness College of Canada) and was officially adopted at the March public council meeting. They worked closely with Jordy Reichson, Director of Public Safety, Cote Saint-Luc’s point-man on emergency operations and readiness issues.

The next step will be to undertake training for all key stakeholders and players, including the elected officials, city staff and partners involved in the management of an emergency as well as advising the public that a new plan has been adopted.  A sensitization and education campaign of residents, through a “Guide to public safety” document will be conducted later this year.

The new plan will “tested” through tabletop exercises and possibly a live exercise.

The resolution reads as follows:

RESOLUTION TO ADOPT AN EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS PLAN FOR THE CITY OF COTE SAINT-LUC

“WHEREAS, the City of Côte Saint-Luc considers the protection of residents and infrastructure an important element in the safety of the city and its people;

WHEREAS, the Civil Protection Act requires all municipalities on the island of Montreal to enter into an agreement with the Agglomeration of Montreal, acting as a regional authority, regarding the prevention of, preparedness for, mitigation of and response to emergencies on its territory;

WHEREAS, the Emergency Preparedness Committee has prepared a plan for dealing with emergencies and disasters of all kinds on its territory.”

It was

MOVED BY COUNCILLOR GLENN J. NASHEN

SECONDED BY COUNCILLOR RUTH KOVAC

AND RESOLVED

“THAT the Côte Saint-Luc City Council herewith adopts the attached document, entitled “Emergency Preparedness Plan”, consisting of 99 pages;

THAT the Côte Saint-Luc City Council hereby authorizes the Director of Public Safety to submit a copy of the said plan to the Centre de sécurité civile, a division of the Montreal Fire Department;

THAT said resolution is for immediate action.”

Smoke detectors would have saved woman’s life

The recent deadly fire on Van Horne Ave in Cote des Neiges was a terrible reminder of just how important it is to have functioning smoke detectors in your home.  Firefighters did a blitz in the neighbourhood the next day and found 70% of residences were without operating detectors.

This is astounding and absurd!  Is your life not worth the trouble of a $10 or $20 detector and a couple of bucks for a new battery?

Also worth noting is that door-to-door fire inspections have fallen off the radar at the Montreal Fire Department since the mergers in 2002.  Our pre-merger Cote Saint-Luc Fire Department did inspections nearly every day of the week, all year-long.  Places of large gatherings such as the shopping centres, church, synagogues and civic centres were inspected every week.  Houses, condos and apartments were inspected at least once a year.

Since the merger, there are hardly any inspections at all.  We pay more in taxes for less services for Montreal’s fire inspection. This is totally unacceptable.  Another empty promise from those that forced the mergers on us.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, nine years after merging the fire departments there is still not a word of English on their website!

CTV Montreal – Smoke detectors would have saved woman’s life – CTV News.

Related Articles

• Fire safety at home (gjnashen.wordpress.com)
• My letter to the editor in the Montreal Gazette (March 10, 2011)

Reverse 911 service coming to Montreal

CBC News – Montreal – ‘Reverse 911′ service coming to Montreal.

I’m glad to see the Montreal Agglomeration is embracing new technologies to communicate more effectively with The Island’s residents in case of emergency or crisis situation. In 2011, though, they should also be actively pursuing the myriad of social media possibilities that can reach out much faster to many more people, and faster, than a traditional phone dialer. Twitter is an undeniable major player and its role in disseminating emergency communications should not be underestimated.

I do find a sense of irony in reading about Fire Department’s interest in reaching out to the residents across the Island of Montreal. If they are truly motivated to be more efficient at communications they ought to ensure that their own website’s English side shows more than “under construction” some 10 years after the announcement to merge Fire departments across the island.

After all, effective emergency communications is carried out in many languages, not just one.

Fire prevention campaign targets school children

The first “Fire Prevention Month” of the Montreal Fire Department has begun.  Claude Trudel, Chair of Public Security on the Montreal executive committee, and Serge Tremblay, Director of the Fire Department launched the program aimed at Montreal school children.  The theme is “Fire Safety Starts at Home”.  FD teams will visit over 300 primary schools on the island.

Emphasis will be placed on the need to have a working smoke alarm. “A working smoke detector was missing in all cases of deaths due to accidental fires in homes in 2009,” said Mr. Trudel. “In this context, FD teams will visit 50,000 homes to ascertain the presence and operation of this essential tool. Where deficiencies are found, alarms as well as lithium batteries are distributed by prevention agents.  To date, 30,000 visits have taken place.”

“Fire Prevention Month is a concrete initiative that demonstrates the importance this Administration attaches to the safety of Montrealers. Prevention contributes to security and our quality of life,” says Mr. Trudel.

The Director of the FD said that “empowering citizens of all ages with regard to their own safety, makes them our allies in fire safety across the island. That’s why Fire Prevention Month offers extensive programming for the general public. “

Fire Prevention Month is held from September 13 to October 10, 2010 on the entire territory of Greater Montreal. For program details, visit ville.montreal.qc.ca/sim.

In my opinion:  The Montreal Fire Department amalgamated all the fire departments on the island of Montreal in 2002, including all of those in bilingual cities, such as Cote Saint-Luc.  After 8 years of service one would think they would offer an English language version of their website and educational materials.  This is truly disappointing and quite unacceptable and should be corrected without further delay.