Toronto’s Leading Mayoral Contender Wants to Merge Fire, EMS

A front runner in the Toronto mayor’s race has promised to combine the city’s EMS and fire service, a move he says will improve response times and save lives. The candidate, George Smitherman, is a well-known figure in provincial politics, having served as a former minister of provincial parliament and minister of health in Ontario. Local newspapers have called Smitherman the “heir apparent” to replace the current mayor, who has decided not to run again. The election will be held Oct. 25.

“This all comes down to saving lives,” says campaign spokesperson Stefan Baranski. “Systems such as Calgary in Alberta and Winnipeg in Manitoba have moved to integrated fire and EMS and have shown significantly better outcomes as far as providing first response and getting responders to the scene quickly.”

The survival rate for life-threatening calls including cardiac arrest, major trauma, respiratory distress and chest pain in Ontario communities is 2.5 percent, “among the lowest in the Western world,” according to a campaign press release that cites the Ontario Pre-hospital Advanced Life Support Study conducted between 1994 and 2000. Ontario should strive to have survival rates more on par with Calgary and Seattle, both of which have integrated fire and EMS services, the release states.

Calling it the “Service First” plan, Smitherman has pledged to empower the fire department to add “full-scope paramedical response units when appropriate” to calls; combine the administrative functions of fire and EMS dispatch for greater cost efficiency; and create a multi-stakeholder committee, including fire and EMS, that will design an integrated system of emergency response.

Baranski acknowledges that combining Toronto EMS and Toronto Fire Services could be controversial. (According to the Toronto Star, both the EMS and the firefighters unions oppose a merger.) But Baranski cites a 2008 report, “Saving a Life in 6.0 Minutes or Less,” by the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs and the Ontario Professional Fire Fighters Association. The report argues for combining fire and EMS, claiming that the firefighters have the training to respond quickly and effectively not only to fires, but also to car accidents; chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear incidents; terrorist attacks; and medical calls such as cardiac arrest. “The fire service is structured to address all of the above simultaneously and is perfectly positioned to complement and enhance a struggling EMS delivery system across Ontario, thus significantly improving patient outcomes,” the report reads.

Across the province, response times average more than 13 minutes, according to a 2005 report from Ontario’s auditor general. Toronto’s response time is about 12 minutes, according to the Smitherman campaign.

To read the “Saving a Life in 6.0 Minutes or Less” report, visit

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Chevrolet Teaches First Responders About Electric Car Safety

With the first Chevy Volts set to roll off the assembly line and into dealerships this fall, Chevrolet and OnStar are partnering with the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) and other organizations to educate first responders about electric vehicle technology. The goal of the training sessions is to help responders know how to safely handle electric vehicles in emergency situations, whether that means having to cut into the roof to extricate a trapped or injured passenger or how to handle an electric vehicle that’s submerged in water.

The first training session will include a three-hour classroom session and a hands-on demonstration with a Volt at the IAFC’s Fire-Rescue International Conference Aug. 23–27 in Chicago. Additional sessions may be held throughout the year, but dates and locations have not been determined. Eventually, the IAFC’s website, IAFC.org, will include a link to a General Motors site where a training video will be available for download, says Jack Parow, the IAFC’s first vice president.

Dealing with vehicles powered by 350-volt batteries requires special care, according to Parow. “Technological changes in the automotive industry require changes in fire and emergency service operations as well,” he says. On some new cars—not just the electric ones—the roof and side pillars are made from ultra-high-strength, tempered steel that’s difficult to cut through with many of the tools now commonly in use, Parow adds, so responders need to learn the locations of the weakest points, where cutting is somewhat easier. “We’ve been having trouble with some of the new cars,” he explains. “We’ve had cases where we’ve snapped the tips right off the cutting tool. Knowing the workaround points will be a good stopgap until we can replace all of the tools with ones that are more effective.”

When it comes to electric cars in particular, responders need to know how to de-energize the high-voltage wires. “You don’t want to be out in the dark, down an embankment, trying to figure these things out,” Parow says. On the Volt, the battery itself is encased in fiberglass and then a high-strength steel case. Wires are automatically de-energized when the key is out of the ignition or the airbags go off. For added safety, there’s an emergency kill switch in the car’s console, as well as another in the trunk. Stickers in the engine compartment and trunk guide rescuers to the switches.

As for water rescues, Chevy is still conducting safety tests on how rescuers should handle a submerged electric vehicle, says Parow, who is chief of the Chelmsford Fire Department, outside Boston. “What is nice is they are working with us and we can bring these things up to them,” he says. “The main thing we are concerned with is: How can we get the people out and keep us safe at the same time?”
Chevy, OnStar, IAFC and the National Emergency Number Association made the announcement about the training sessions at the San Francisco Fire Department.