Ontarians' rely on a pre-hospital emergency medical services (EMS) system that is clearly struggling to meet their needs. In recent years, governments have significantly increased funding for EMS delivery and seen little or no improvement to the response time problems that currently plague the system.
This is not the fault of the emergency responders or paramedics. Ontario's paramedics are highly skilled professionals that as emergency responders have the ability to save many Ontarians' lives when treating out of hospital medical emergencies.

Currently Ontario has one of the worst survivability rates for out of hospital cardiac events in North America. Ontario's fire services are trained in a wide variety of emergency response disciplines beyond just fighting fires. Our training includes advanced emergency response first aid, CPR, defibrillation, and in some areas other life saving techniques.
Research on patient survivability, time and time again, has shown that what occurs in the first few minutes after the onset of a medical emergency will have a direct effect on the long term outcome of the patient. During the mid 1990's, as a result of The
Ontario Pre-Hospital Advanced Life Support Study (OPALS), Ontario's fire service became a critical part of the response to a variety of medical emergencies. The OPALS study recognizes that rapid defibrillation, by police or fire, etc, within 8 minutes
increases chances of survival by 3 times.

The OPFFA believes that rapid, efficient and effective delivery of emergency medical response means sending the nearest trained personnel to the scene of an emergency. The fire service is already strategically placed to respond rapidly to fires or other emergency situations and as documented in the OPALS study can positively
affect the outcome of medical emergencies.

There have been recent moves by EMS providers and unions to prevent the utilization of the fire service for medical responses. We believe the fire service can improve the current situation faced by many areas across the province which will result in improved emergency medical responses to Ontario's citizens.
Currently the OPFFA and the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs (OAFC) are advocating for simultaneous dispatch for all life threatening emergencies as a major first step in saving more Ontarian's lives.
This is not about taking over jobs, services, or union members - this is about saving lives!

June 2009

Thanks from the Charitable Committee 

As we turn the calendar and welcome the year 2009, we enter a critical time for our fundraising initiative for the Queen’s Park Fallen Fire Fighters Memorial.  Unfortunately, we are still well short of our $500,000 goal and to have the reconstruction of the memorial completed for this year’s service held on Sunday October 4, 2009 we need a considerable influx of monies to make the necessary commitments.

I realize that with this economic slowdown many have had to make tough choices when it comes to disposal income.  I am asking all OPFFA members, other members of the fire service and our families to consider donating to this fundraiser which will allow us to "Restore Respect".

Our goal may be high but so was the sacrifice of so many of our members.  They deserve an untarnished place of remembrance.

Fred LeBlanc
OPFFA President

Welcome. The Whitby Professional Firefighters Association website has undergone a makeover. While there are sections of the website that are still under construction we thought we would let the membership and public have access to it now after its long awaited arrival.

Transportation Minister, the Hon. James Bradley addressed OPFFA delegates on Tuesday afternoon, June 10th and announced that the OPFFA would be the first partner under the new graphic license plate program.