PERIOD REPORT
DATE: January 26, 2026 Report No. FIRE-26-001
TO: Dan Horan, Chief Administrative Officer
FROM: Matt Furlot, Fire Chief
SUBJECT:TITLE Fire Department & Emergency Management Program - 2025 Third Period Report.Body
The following is a report on the activities pertaining to the Fire Department and the Emergency Management Program from September 1, 2025 to December 31, 2025.
I. FIRE DEPARTMENT DIVISION ACHIEVEMENTS AND ACTIVITIES
1. OPERATIONS
During the third period of 2025, Esquimalt Fire Rescue Services responded to a variety of emergency incidents and completed numerous routine activities.
Operational Observations:
• Medical aid calls remain consistently high, continuing to account for a significant portion of frontline workload and reinforcing sustained operational pressure on suppression crews.
• Alarm calls increased notably during this period. Although many do not involve an active fire, each requires a full emergency response, drawing critical resources away from other service demands. This trend may reflect increased development, higher occupancy, or aging alarm systems and warrants further analysis.
• New business licenses rose significantly, with each application requiring fire department review and inspection to ensure life safety and occupancy standards are met. While this growth reflects a healthy local economy, it places increasing pressure on inspection capacity at a time when crews are already stretched to maintain existing workloads.
• Burning complaints declined sharply, likely reflecting the effectiveness of targeted public communication on the Fire Control and Fireworks Bylaws. This demonstrates how proactive education can reduce enforcement-related demand on operational crews.
The volume of calls continues to gradually increase, from 340 incidents this period in 2024, to 371 incidents for the same period in 2025. Total incidents continue to rise year after year, with 2025 being a record year for Call Volume.
Temporary Suppression Firefighter Pilot:
The Temporary Suppression Firefighter Pilot was introduced in response to a sustained and escalating staffing strain that was driving significant overtime and fatigue across the department. In the first half of 2025, overtime reached critical levels, peaking at 750 hours in March and averaging approximately 530 hours per month. This trend was not situational but structural, reflecting a workforce operating below the level required to reliably absorb leave, training, illness, and unplanned absences while maintaining service delivery.
The pilot began in September with the addition of two temporary suppression firefighters, increasing staffing to 31. Overtime immediately fell to an average of 245 hours per month, less than half of the previous level.
In December, the final temporary firefighter was added, bringing suppression staffing to the target of 32 FTEs. In the first two weeks of January 2026, overtime has totaled just 12 hours. While this reflects only a partial month and the full evaluation will be presented to Council in February 2026, the early indicators are encouraging. Initial results suggest that establishing the full complement of suppression firefighters has the potential to meaningfully influence system performance, with observable improvements in service reliability, financial stability, and firefighter wellness and sustainability.
2. COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT, FIRE PREVENTION, FLEET & FACILITIES
Esquimalt Fire Rescue Services remained actively engaged across prevention initiatives throughout this reporting period, balancing core service delivery with community presence. Highlights included:
• Fire Prevention: Business licences continued to be received regularly, with required inspections prioritized and typically completed within days to support safe and timely business openings. Occupancy inspections rose as new developments came online, along with associated fire safety plan reviews.
• Community Engagement: Crews and staff participated in a wide range of public education and outreach activities, including hall tours, car seat inspections, RibFest support, Coffee with a Cop/Firefighter, seniors’ fire safety talks, Seniors Appreciation Tea, Rainbow Kitchen dinner service, Tour de Rock events, Woofability training exposure, the Halloween Firehall Spooktacular and Kosapsum events, the Poppy Campaign, Remembrance Day, and participation in the Esquimalt Celebration of Light Christmas Parade. The department also delivered targeted social media campaigns focused on fireworks safety and bylaw compliance, lithium-ion battery hazards, and seasonal safety messaging.
• Fleet, Facilities, and Equipment: A new Command truck was placed into service, and work continued on the new Light Rescue unit. All annual pump and ladder testing was completed, along with required SCBA flow testing, ensuring operational readiness and compliance with safety standards.
• Public Safety Building: Construction continued on schedule and within the approved budget. Key milestones included the erection of structural walls, concrete pours for floors, commencement of the exterior building envelope, and the start of roofing. These visible advancements mark the transition into vertical construction and the formation of the operational spaces that will serve public safety for decades to come.
3. STAFF DEVELOPMENT
A total of 3005 training hours were delivered across 27 training events.
Significant initiatives included:
• Occupational Health & Safety training
• HazMat regional training
• Officer Development - Auto extrication
• Fire Officer courses - Emergency Scene Management Levels I and II
• Building Effective Teams - Bullying/Harassment training
• Instructor Development - Technical Rope Rescue
• Emergency Management Refresher
• Chief Officer Emergency Scene Management
• 3, 6, & 9-month Probationer Assessments
• Digital Vehicular Repeater System (DVRS) training all members
4. COMMITMENT TO REGIONAL COOPERATION
EFRS continues to place strong emphasis on regional collaboration to enhance interoperability, safety, and training across the South Island.
• Canadian Forces Base: Joint training in Emergency Scene Management
• View Royal, Colwood, & Langford: Chief Officer professional development in Incident Command.
• Saanich: Digital Vehicle Repeater System crew training.
• Victoria: Joint firefighter recruitment planning for 2026.
• South Vancouver Island: Regional Mayday Operational Guidelines and planned training.
• Capital Regional Fire Chief’s Association: High Rise Working Group to collaborate and coordinate a regional response to high rise structure fires.
Through these joint initiatives, EFRS demonstrates its ongoing commitment to fostering consistent standards, safe practices, and strong partnerships across Greater Victoria. The Fire Chief meets with neighbouring departments on a regular basis and continues to promote and advance collaborations that enhance mutual aid for the Township of Esquimalt and the region.
5. COMMITTEES
Esquimalt Fire Department members are actively involved with numerous local and regional initiatives through the following associations:
• Capital Region Fire Chiefs’ Association (Chair: F/C Furlot)
• Greater Vancouver Fire Chief’s Association
o Technical High Angle Rope Rescue Program (THARRP) (Chair: F/C Furlot)
• Canadian Fire Chief’s Association
o Leadership, Mental Health, and Executive Chief Fire Officer Programs (F/C Furlot)
• Fire Chiefs’ Association of BC
o Financial and Elections Committees (F/C Furlot)
o Education Planning Committee (F/C Furlot)
• CRD Regional Hazardous Materials Response Planning Committee (F/C Furlot)
• Fire Training Officers’ Association of BC (A/C Swan)
• Fire Prevention Officers’ Association of BC (A/C Widdifield)
• Greater Victoria Fire Prevention Officers’ Association (A/C Widdifield)
• Department Occupational Health & Safety Committee
• BC Burn Fund
• BC Professional Firefighters Association
• Greater Victoria Public Safety Unit Joint Management Team
II. EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PROGRAM ACHIEVEMENTS AND ACTIVITIES
1. ADMINISTRATION
Significant progress has been made in advancing Esquimalt’s emergency management planning and resilience-building initiatives during this period:
• Continued engagement and development of the Community Partners Group to support in response and recovery.
• Active Participation in Climate Care Community of Practice. This group is lead by University of Victoria Research Team.
• Continued membership of the Indigenous Engagement Requirements (IER) working group. This is a regional working group with the intent to move forward with the agreement requirements.
• Continued participation of Local Government Emergency Program Advisory Commission (LGEPAC) and Regional Emergency Management Partnership (REMP); both forums are to advance coordination and cooperation within the regional for cross boundary issues.
• Participation on Regional Emergency Coordinators Advisory Commission (RECAC). This group expands coordinators membership to all industries in the region.
• Participation and inclusion in Greater Victoria Community FireSmart & Resiliency Collaborative. Consisting of 16 municipalities and Nation Communities working together on public education and sharing resources and information. This collaborative is required to meet funding requirements.
• Continued participation in the Regional Work Experience for Youth.
• Fire Smart Application has been approved, working with HR to create job posting. Hiring intended for the new year.
• Submission of ESS Grant for Group Lodging supplies and volunteer retention initiatives.
• Participated in EOC tabletop exercise lead by IT on cyber security incident. The tabletop exercise provided better clarity on risks and also supports to IT from the EOC when dealing with an incident.
• Supporting the creation of Communications Plan. A consultant has been hired to create this plan.
2. EMERGENCY SUPPORT SERVICES (ESS)
• Continued training and refinement of Group Lodging Plan and in ESS fundamentals.
• Supported Oak Bay ESS team in their Reception Centre exercise. Volunteers acted as evacuees and provided feedback to their team. It was a very positive, relationship building exercise between volunteers.
• Two volunteers responded to Level One ESS event. One person and their pet was displaced. View Royal ESS supported in confirming hotel for evacuee.
3. RESILIENT COMMUNITY PROGRAM (formerly NEPP)
• The Resilient Community Program advanced both outreach and public education during this period:
• Set up booth at Fire Department open house. Created custom ERP colouring books for children; books contained child friendly images of emergency kits and puzzles.
• Provided safety in winter weather presentation to Admirals Gate Strata.
4. EMERGENCY RADIO COMMUNICATIONS
EFRS continued to strengthen radio communication capacity through regular training and system improvements:
• Reprogramming radio channels in older radios to facilitate change of ve7eep simplex frequency.
• Testing and programming new vhf/uhf radios that are to be installed.
• Updating spare laptop computers from emergency radio go-kits.
• Training radio team on new procedures for sending packets to more distant stations.