A large downtown fire and a bomb threat were some of the things Hanover firefighters tackled in 2022.
An annual report to council from Fire Chief Jeff Dentinger says firefighters responded to 196 calls for service in 2022 compared to 188 in 2021.
That includes mutual aid agreement calls for West Grey and Brockton, though Dentinger notes the bulk of calls are from Hanover. He says it’s their second highest call volume in history. He says they had a total of over 2460 on scene personnel hours in 2022.
He says the average response time was seven minutes and 15 seconds within the Town of Hanover, which is 42 second faster on average compared to 2021.
Dentinger says a large downtown fire in 2022 (at the Forum Hotel) took five local fire departments and over 625 staff hours to suppress and investigate.
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He says a bomb threat response to the Hanover Hospital was coordinated with Hanover Police. That happened late at night on February 25th, 2022. At the time, the hospital was evacuated and the patients were transferred to nearby hospitals. A search was conducted and no explosive device was found.
There were eight fire incidents with an estimated dollar loss of $11,235,350. (The bulk of this amount is a result of the Forum fire and damage to neighbouring buildings).
Of the eight fire incidents, three were structure fires and five were outdoor fires which resulted in no dollar loss.
The largest proportion of calls were for medical assistance at 61, which is an increase of 11 incidents from 2021. Dentinger says in his report, “It should be noted that on at least three occasions in 2022, HFD members responded to medical calls with vital signs absent and provided life-saving CPR and/or Automated External Defibrillation (AED) actions that led to a resuscitation of the patient.”
His report says the second highest number of incidents are generated by false fire alarm activation (34 incidents), a decrease of three incidents from 2021.
There were 17 rescues (vehicle accidents, technical rescue calls, general rescue situations) which was an increase of four over 2021.
There were 15 public hazard emergencies (spills, gas leaks, power lines down or arcing, carbon monoxide calls). He says in 2022, there were two carbon monoxide emergencies where levels were present in the home or business, which is two fewer than 2021.
Dentinger says, in addition, over 10,000 hours were spent on training, response, and administrative duties.
“HFD firefighters again responded effectively and efficiently providing the community with a professional and skilled service that protected both life and property. The
commitment of our firefighters never wavered or faltered,” says Dentinger in his report.