The Kelowna Professional Fire Fighters Association is the union which represents 98 professional firefighters. We are proud members of the International Association of Fire Fighters.

Our executive officers are responsible for negotiating wages, benefits and all other conditions pertaining to the collective agreement between the Union and the City, as well as ensuring a safe workplace and safe working conditions for the membership. The executive have dominion over all grievances relating to the collective agreement, and represent all members of the union in their dealings with the employer.

Our Association has always been politically active in lobbying all levels of government for legislation which protects and improves the safety and working conditions for our members and the public we serve. This includes such diverse issues as Hazardous Materials tracking systems (known as Operation Respond) and Haz Mat training; Canadian Airport Regulation changes to improve response to airplane disasters; cancer and heart legislation (our members have an almost 2:1 ratio of getting these diseases as compared to the general population); W.C.B. regulations on the protective equipment we wear; and enhancing our role as First Responders through training and regulatory changes in a layered pre-hospital care system.

The members of the Kelowna Fire Department responded to residential, commercial and industrial incidents; vehicle fires; bush and grass fires and various other fire types. The training grounds at Fire Station 1 are used regularly by our members to familiarize themselves with new fire techniques and technological changes, as well as normal operational procedures.

Our Fire Prevention members spend countless hours educating school children, residents and businesses of all sizes in fire prevention, home safety and burn awareness. Our members in the stations provide the same education to pre-school, early elementary and community groups (scouts, girl guides). Of all the things we do, this is one which our members hold dear to their hearts - because educating children in fire safety and burn awareness may help prevent a lifetime of pain and scarring.

Click here to download some home safety tips in pdf format!

Innovations by the automobile industry have resulted in increased safety for vehicle passengers, but in a serious motor vehicle accident they make our job more difficult and dangerous. The same reinforcing that protects the vehicle occupants impedes our efforts to treat and/or free them from the wreckage. Thus we must adapt to new methods of ‘removing the vehicle from around the patient’, all the while being careful to avoid deploying the many airbags (which activate at 300 feet per second) and seatbelt tensioners (which have explosive charges in them).

Hazardous materials shipments pass into or through Kelowna every day. They are transported by truck, semi-trailer, tanker truck, train, and other modes of transport. The potential for an accident or spill is ever-present. Our Hazmat team is currently trained to an operations level in hazardous materials response. That means they can respond to and assess such an incident, evacuate and treat persons exposed to the hazards, set up the decontamination zones, and prepare the entry teams to deal with the hazardous product. These specially trained members will put on the protective suits, enter the affected area or building, rescue incapacitated persons and decide on the best course of action.

Part of Kelowna’s beauty is its’ wilderness and mountains. Thirty two of our members are part of the Technical Rescue Team. They have training and expertise to rescue people who have fallen off the cliffs on the Mountain, to work off of construction cranes and down the sides of high rise buildings, and to enter confined spaces such as sewers to rescue children or workers who have inadvertently become trapped.

Our members are trained as First Responders, the first level of a layered pre-hospital care system designed in the best interests of patient care and outcome. As such we respond to medical incidents as set out in the Medical Protocal Dispatch System used by the ambulance service. We train in Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) for certain types of cardiac incidents, and basic medical care. With four fire stations in Kelowna, we can respond to most incidents within four to six minutes. Through donations from the Kinsman and Kinnette clubs of Kelowna, we were one of the first departments to start using AED’s.

Kelowna has a Boston Whaler fire and rescue boat. We train and respond 12 month a year in Marine Rescue and Firefighting. Our fireboat crews also have the ability to fight fires on the shoreline (piers, docks, buildings), as well as respond to emergencies involving pleasure craft.

The Kelowna Fire Department Communications Centre is responsible for the receipt and dispatch of emergency and routine requests for service for the entire Regional District of Central Okanagan. Emergency calls from the public are received on the enhanced 9-1-1 telephone (E9-1-1) system. E9-1-1 provides communication specialists with the caller’s name, address and telephone number as soon as an emergency line is answered. This is extremely useful, as sometimes callers can become upset over an emergency and forget their address. All calls for service are entered into a computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system, which automatically recommends the closest fire station that will respond to the location input into it.