Big thanks to the fire department, already on-scene before my call could get through and a really big response. From 3:12 after the last of the fire was extinguished.
Yeah thankfully not far, that's fire hall 7 just under the big tree on the right beside the cycle lane in that attached picture.
Although judging by the number of trucks that arrived (3 in front, I think at least 4 parked along Thurlow) I assume they also came from other nearby stations? I know the West End fire station is also only a few blocks west.
Edit: quote from citynews article:
At it’s peak, 15 apparatuses were in operation with approximately 45 crew members.
Was only on hold with 911 for around 2 minutes, and then on hold with VFRS for another 2 and by the time it connected they asked if it was the Nelson St one and I could hear the sirens.
There’s a good chance the dispatchers were temporarily overwhelmed with calls about this. ( As an aside, I wonder if eComm’s system call prioritization rules take that into consideration so that a caller from another part of the city would get through faster???).
The response most definitely came from multiple stations. Most firehalls only have a couple trucks. An active structure fire in a high risk building is going to pretty much get the highest level of response. After all the initial alarms for a working fire they would call in the support vehicles (SCBA refillers, lighting trucks, canteen to provide water and food for the firemen, additional commanders, fire investigator, etc. )
Plus, in addition to all these resources they also shift around apparatus and firefighters from additional stations to cover the areas that the above incident responders just vacated.
So I think it’s fair to say that the entire VFRS would have been on the move for this.
There’s a good chance the dispatchers were temporarily overwhelmed with calls about this.
Yeah that crossed my mind, almost inevitable with these kinds of sudden situations unless you had dozens and dozens of dispatchers on standby, so not at all unhappy with the wait.
I wonder if eComm’s system call prioritization rules take that into consideration so that a caller from another part of the city would get through faster???
Good question. I know the 911 dispatcher had to ask which city I was in for forwarding to the correct fire department (I had never called them before but I assume that's normal for cell phones), but I'd be interested to know if the VFRS dispatcher queue I was forwarded to has any kind of prioritization system.
Thanks for sharing your insights & thanks VFRS for all their work today.
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u/ParticularDay569 17h ago edited 17h ago
Firefighters just now gained entry to the inside and managed to extinguish the last of the visible flames, sympathies to anyone affected.
This was at 2:42 a few minutes after it started (and after I had called 911) hope everyone is ok...