CALEB NICKERSON
PORTAGE DU FORT
Dec. 9, 2020
At the last MRC Pontiac council meeting on Nov. 25, L’Île du Grand Calumet Mayor Serge Newberry brought up an issue he had heard about regarding dispatching to local fire departments. Though the issue wasn’t discussed at the meeting, Newberry addressed his concerns with . . .
MRC Public Safety officer Julien Gagnon, and gave more details in a follow up interview with THE EQUITY.
He said that he was made aware of a few intersecting issues where the dispatchers aren’t clear about where exactly a fire is taking place. This came to a head with the recent fire on the Chenaux Bridge in the early morning of Nov. 17.
Gagnon explained that there are two issues at play: one being that certain provincial roads are also given names by various municipalities.
“The [Rte.] 301 south, that goes from Bryson to Portage across the bridge into Ontario, within the boundaries of the municipality of Portage [du Fort], actually is called chemin de l’Île,” he said.
Gagnon added that the fact that the Bryson Grand Calumet Portage Fire Department covers several municipalities adds a challenge when it comes to learning street names.
Another layer of difficulty was that the firefighters weren’t initially notified that the situation was on the bridge, since they were only given the nearest intersection. Newberry said that he would like to see a protocol established to include these kinds of details
“[The dispatcher] can add a note and in this case it would have been really important, because … it was half a kilometre further than that point,” he said. “It should have said ‘It’s on one of the bridges.’ That’s what I was asking, for them to put in a procedure where they define exactly what they write every time.”
Gagnon noted that adding additional notes is up to the individual dispatcher, but they are often used in vehicle accidents.
“They definitely can, but it’s up to them whether they do. Of course each dispatcher is a little different,” he said. “I often see it for vehicle accidents. They normally specify, ‘vehicle in the ditch’ or ‘overturned’ or ‘vehicle fire’ for that matter, … That is up to the dispatcher and they can add little notes when it comes through on the page.”
Gagnon also said that in cases like this, firefighters can also call the dispatch directly to sort out any issues.
