After an increase in violence in the area, the Victoria firefighters union president says first responders will wait for police before responding to some blocks of Pandora Avenue.
Jeremy Wilson, president of International Association of Fire Fighters Local 730 (which represents Victoria firefighters), says calls for service to the 800, 900 or 1000 blocks of Pandora Avenue will require police escort.
“This particular area of the city, our members do not feel safe, I don’t feel safe, so at this time we’re going to coordinate with the other agencies, and if we enter this area, we’re going to enter it together,” Wilson said in an interview with CHEK News.
“Moving forward, when a call comes in…this will just be an automatic ‘wait for police.’ All that means is we respond to just outside the area of whatever the address may be. When police arrives, when ambulance arrives, the three agencies will then proceed together.”
This change comes after a paramedic was assaulted while responding to a medical incident in the 900-block of Pandora Avenue on July 11. The paramedic was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after being kicked in the face.
READ MORE: Paramedic injured after being attacked while providing medical assistance in Victoria
Wilson says this is in response to growing concerns to safety in this area in addition to the incident on July 11, and to ensure that everyone involved has a safe workspace.
Del Manak, Victoria’s police chief, says after the paramedic was assaulted, firefighters who were responding to an unrelated call helped the paramedics who were being assaulted and grabbed their sledgehammers and axes to form a wall around the paramedics while he was given medical aid.
He says he supports the move to no longer allow firefighters or paramedics to respond to those three blocks without police escort.
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“I think that it’s really important. They’re not trained in de-escalation, they don’t have the tools to be able to defend themselves and to be able to create space and to be able to make arrests, they don’t carry handcuffs,” Manak said.
“And so I think it’s important that we respect our first responders, and we do everything that we can to create a safe place for them to be able to do their job.”
Manak says this change will impact VicPD’s ability to respond to some calls.
“Now we are going to be putting other calls that are lower priority on the back burner to be able to assist fire and ambulance so that they can respond at the earliest opportunity that I can free up resources. So it’s a challenge and a drain on our resources that are already stretched to the limit,” Manak said.
“The second part, just as important, if not more important, is that if you’re in the 900 block, you’re now going to receive a delayed medical response when we know seconds could matter.”
Victoria’s Mayor Marianne Alto was unavailable for an on camera interview, but issued a statement.
“First responders are trained to deal with dangerous situations, and, while this one was particularly challenging, our community knows that when police, fire and ambulance services are called, they are there for us, despite the danger. But it is never OK for our first responders to themselves be under attack while they are saving lives,” Alto’s statement said.
“While commending our emergency service responders for their enduring individual and collective action, I continue to urge the province to recognize the challenges facing municipalities as we respond to the urgent issues of homelessness, mental health and addictions that are impacting Victoria and the rest of B.C., precipitated by gaps in health and housing programs and services.”
Grant McKenzie, spokesperson for Our Place Society, says he is devastated by what happened on July 11, however, the organization had been trying to get help for the man prior to this incident.
“We never want to see any first responder get harmed, and so that’s very difficult for us, and we’re also heartbroken because the individual involved in the incident is someone that we’ve been calling for help for a long time,” McKenzie said.
“He’s suffering from severe multiple brain injuries, and we know he’s not in his right mind, and we called on emergency services numerous times for the last months, trying to get him help, trying to get him assessed, trying to get an MRI on him, taking him into care.”
“We even tried to get him sanctioned, because we don’t have that power, and nothing was done. In fact, we were told that nothing could be done until something bad happened, and last night, the worst thing possible happened.”
McKenzie says he agrees that everyone deserves a safe workspace, but he wishes actions had been taken prior to the assault to prevent it from happening.
Manak echoes the sentiment, saying he has frequently called for involuntary care.
“We have to have it in our community to protect the general public, but also to protect the individual,” Manak said.
“How fair is it for an individual who is in mental health crisis, has a high propensity towards violence, they’re unable to self medicate, they don’t have the ability to manage socially in our society, that we let this individual flounder, flounder on our streets, hit and miss, through gaps in service that we have through our healthcare system?” Manak said.
“It’s not fair that it’s not really basic human care.”
With files from CHEK’s Kori Sidaway
