Photo courtesy of the CRFRS

By Adam Ophus

First Responders

Drivers urged to use caution near emergency scenes

Feb 13, 2020 | 6:00 PM

Clearwater Regional Fire Rescue Service (CRFRS) crews are asking citizens to not only drive carefully to prevent an incident, but to also be cautious driving up to and past First Responders who are assisting with an incident.

“There has been a really large increase in North America… and it shows that currently in 2020 the highest cause of firefighters getting killed is from accidents on highways where they are (being) struck,” explained Assistant Fire Chief Evan Stewart.

Regional Fire Chief Steve Debienne referenced two incidents that took place within the last week where either responders or equipment were nearly crashed into.

Debienne mentioned that they take every precaution they can to inform the public of when and where they need to look out for.

“We try to do early notification for the public on all of our calls, as you see on our Facebook and Twitter feed, and that’s important so the population can understand that we’ve got something going on and they can see our vehicles going to and from the station and just to err on the side of caution.”

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Photo courtesy of CRFRS

He also noted that with each incident response, they set up a large fluorescent pink with black writing “emergency scene ahead” sign, roughly two miles from the collision and anywhere there could be an obstruction like a hill or curve.

Stewart reiterates that their focus is usually on the incident at hand and that safety is number one.

“Once our crews get there the number one priority is to size a scene up and see what needs to be completed, life safety being our number one priority for First Responders and the people that are having the emergency.”

CRFRS explained that they always try to leave at least one lane open on highways when attending to a scene, but if they come across uncontrolled hazards, don’t have enough members on scene or if the RCMP need to investigate, they will divert traffic for as long as needed.

Photo Courtesy of CRFRS

“Our guidelines are to dispatch two big fire engines to work as a blocking apparatus, they’re big and expensive trucks, but I’d rather it get hit than one of our people” Debienne says confidently.

By law vehicles must yield to emergency vehicles and slow to 60 kilometres-per-hour, but Stewart admits that sometimes the room to work is so small, that even that can be too fast and dangerous.

“Sometimes there is the unfortunateness that some individuals either don’t notice or some other reason that they don’t obey, we have officers on scene and if not, we do have cameras mounted on the front and back of our trucks now,” he disclosed of people getting fined or losing their drivers license.

“It’s amazing how many people coming through a motor vehicle collision and we have it down to one lane, the driver will be trying to video the accident on their phones,” Debienne shockingly declared.

But he recapped that at the end of the day safety of First Responders always came first.