Body armour requested for firefighters
Purchase is part of a tri-service pact to share equipment, training, expertise
Calgary firefighters will soon be able to wear body armour as fears grow of mass casualty shootings and better equipped criminals.
A request for proposal was issued last week seeking a supplier for 500 sets of ballistic body armour plates for use by both Calgary police and fire departments, as part of a groundbreaking agreement between fire, police and EMS.
“We’re the first city in Canada to sign an accord where we would work together to develop these protocols,” fire Chief Steve Dongworth said.
He said the body armour purchase is part of this tri-service agreement to share training, equipment and expertise. He said the genesis for closer co-operation came out of increasing numbers of mass casualty shootings in the United States — situations many fear may become more frequent north of the border.
“There’s been a lot of learning coming out of those events in terms of how best to manage them,” Dongworth said. “What that has led to is law enforcement, EMS and fire realizing that there’s a greater role the fire service can play.”
That involves firefighters taking a more active role in such emergencies, potentially seeing them accompany police into active scenes to render immediate first aid and rescue.
“What we realized after events such as Columbine is that nobody would go into the building for hours — not even police — so people were ending up dying from bleeding out,” Dongworth said.
“As a result of that, we’ve developed different tactics that better engage us, and if I’m going to commit my men and women to those types of events, they’d better have the same level of protection as those who are with them.”
Police forces across Canada issue soft, flexible vests that offer protection from knife slashes, most pistol rounds and shotgun blasts — rated level II or IIIA on an industry-standard scale of threat protection.
Protecting against rifle rounds, however, requires armour similar to those being sought by the city.
Of the 500 units on order, Dongworth said about 40 will be allocated to the fire department and will be made ready for use when needed. The price is yet to be determined but each unit would be in the hundreds of dollars.
Calgary police Chief Roger Chaffin said responders are attending scenes involving increasingly violent and better-armed criminals.
“This is the best opportunity we have right now to improve the safety of our officers,” he said. “We certainly have both a moral and legal obligation to make sure our officers are as well protected as possible.”
Similar to the body armour currently outfitted by the CPS tactical unit, the order will, for the first time, allow front-line officers access to this enhanced protection.
Similar to the fire department’s deployment, the heavy, bulky armour isn’t intended for daily use. While some of the armour will head to the tactical unit as part of routine replacement, the rest will be stored at each district office for use when required.