The Dauphin Fire Department has released their year in review for 2021 and while 2021 was not their busiest year on record, it was an almost 20% increase in incidents as compared to 2020.
The highest number of incidents continues to be false alarms at 52 calls, which totals 26% of the total alarms.
The second-highest amount of calls continue to be vehicle collisions and for the first time since 2018 outdoor fires such as grass/field/brush and dumpster fires were in the top 3 which replaced the previous number 3 which was kitchen fires. With 2021 having been such a dry year, it is believed that was a large contributing factor in the increase in outdoor fires.
The DFD says there were over 5,700 hours in 2021 that were taken up by incidents with just over 1,500 in the RM of Dauphin and just under 4,000 in the city of Dauphin. 158 hours of that were spent helping neighbouring departments through the mutual aid system.
When the department wasn’t on calls they spent just under 2,500 hours on weekly training sessions which were held every Wednesday as well as some weekend training sessions held locally through the MB Emergency Services College including the following:
- 12 members who completed the Fire Department Safety Officer seminar (20-hour course),
- 5 who completed the Fire Ground Management seminar (18-hour course),
- 11 who completed the Rescue Practices (low angle rope rescue) seminar (18-hour course),
- 11 who completed the Pumps Basic seminar (18-hour course),
- 11 who completed the Pumps Advanced seminar (18-hour course), and
- 8 who completed the Emergency Vehicle Driving Skills seminar (18 hours).
This is an additional 1,068 hours of weekend training given by the members of the department to help prepare themselves to better serve the community.
On top of that, 3 members of DFD completed their Fire Fighting Level II (NFPA 1001) exams and 8 members completed their Driver/Operator (NFPA 1002) exams through the MB Emergency Services College in 2021.
