As of May, the firefighters of New Westminster added some important new skills to their job. They are now licensed to provide a wide scope of emergency medical services at the scene – pretty important when you consider the fire trucks and fire personnel are usually the first on scene of any emergency.

They have now been licensed to provide skills such as blood pressure and oxygen level monitoring, glucose checks for diabetics, and they can administer ASA and nitroglycerin to heart attack victims, glucagon to diabetics, epinephrine to those suffering an allergic attack, among other things.

As firefighters are usually the first on any emergency scene, so the addition of these skills will save lives.

Also, the New Westminster Fire Service have developed a plan for dealing with catastrophic events in case of a repeat of the 2021 heat dome or other occurrences such as an earthquake.

Deputy Fire Chief Brad Davie says that all of the firefighters are very pleased with the addition of these new skills.  It has definitely raised morale among them. Many firefighters see this as a way of giving back to the community,

When one considers that the saving of life is the prime directive of the firefighting profession, it is obvious why these skills have been embraced in New Westminster. The city is the third in BC to have added these skills to their toolkit.

Deputy Fire Chief, Brad Davie, explains how and why these changes have been made and what skills the firefighters have now added to their jobs.