Fire hall overwhelmed by overdose crisis: chief

It has forced the department to redistribute resources, jurisdictions and staff.

While fighting fires remains the priority for the hall, McKearney said, “They’re mostly just focused now on very small areas that relates to medical calls.”

Firefighters in Vancouver have long been a first responder to medical emergencies and earlier this year they were trained to use the opioid antidote naloxone in response to the rising number of deaths, McKearney said.

But the repeated calls to drug-related health emergencies takes a toll on first responders.

“The hardest thing on the staff is to keep going back and to see the same people, with their lives ruined, living on the street, with mental health issues either as a result of or caused by (substance abuse),” McKearney said.

Firefighters in the Downtown Eastside hall are allowed to work at the hall for only a year and are then transferred to other locations in the city, reducing the mental health implications that come with the stress of the job, the chief said.

The B.C. government declared a public health emergency in April because of the dramatic increase in overdose deaths in the province, much of them caused by fentanyl. There were 555 reported overdose deaths in the province as of Sept. 30.

Federal Health Minister Jane Philpott met with municipal and provincial officials on Thursday at the fire hall to hear about the challenges that first responders are experiencing as they try to cope with the overdose crisis.

Across the country, an estimated five to six people die every day due to overdosing, Philpott said to reporters ahead of the meeting.

“It is long past time that we all come together and do our part to respond to this,” she said.

Philpott said that responding to the crisis requires a complex plan that addresses issues of poverty, homelessness, and mental health and addictions.