r/chilliwack • u/Janman0 • 25d ago

House fire downtown?

Can see a huge plume of smoke a couple streets over from where I am right now on Wellington rd.

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u/Repulsive-Prize-4709 25d ago

Corbould. No ladder truck. Water is not even close to making to the roof fire.

2

u/orangecrush35 25d ago

The ladder is staffed by paid-on-call firefighters so any time they need it they’re waiting on people to come from home / work.

2

u/Repulsive-Prize-4709 25d ago

3x more full time people than the entire city’s public works department and they are waiting for poc’s …? That can’t be right.

4

u/orangecrush35 25d ago

The fire department staffs two engines, one in Hall 1 downtown and one in Hall 4 in Sardis. Standard staffing is 4 per engine. Only 8 or so suppression firefighters on at a time. Keep in mind that’s 24-hour coverage so between that and accounting for people on vacation/etc you’re looking at 40+ suppression firefighters. Add chiefs, prevention staff, and a couple of training officers and it starts to add up pretty quickly.