The slight increase in the response time of Montreal firefighters in recent years is linked to road congestion and the omnipresence of construction sites, their big boss said on Monday.
Metropolitan firefighters take on average 5 min 15 sec to arrive at the scene of calls in 2023, while they took 4 min 58 sec in 2019, an increase of almost 6%.
“It’s not a big increase, we’re talking about a small variation, but […] we see that there is still an upward trend,” said chef Richard Liebmann, on the sidelines of a presentation at city hall. “The various construction sites, the traffic, the traffic mean that the travel time has increased a little, by a few seconds. »
Chief Liebmann stressed that his teams were working on reducing the delays between receiving 911 calls and trucks leaving the firehouses, in an attempt to shave seconds off the total response time.
The president of the Montreal Firefighters Association (APM), Chris Ross, affirmed that his union members also noticed the impact of road conditions on their travel time. The calming measures that have multiplied in the streets of Montreal in recent years have had a direct effect. “We often try to slow down citizens,” said Mr. Ross. “All these things that slow down the population also slow down the firefighters. »