A report drafted for the Fire Chiefs' Association of B.C. is calling on the province to provide more funding and stricter guidelines for fire services training.
The report - British Columbia Fire Training Needs Assessment - was prepared by researchers at BCIT using past studies and research as well as surveys and interviews conducted by the institute.
The report concludes that because of a lack of government oversight, especially in the more rural volunteer fire departments, there has been "inconsistent fire services training across the province," according to a press release.
In Burnaby, however, training to an industry standard is a priority and the department does as much training as its resources will allow, said fire Chief Shaun Redmond.
"As best as we can, we train to (Fire Protection Association) standards," he said. "There's some things that we don't partake in because we're unable to maintain the certification."
While funding can be hard to come by at the Burnaby department, it isn't the main reason the department chooses not to certify its officers in all areas available, Redmond said.
"We could be quite a bit more diversified, but we don't have the resources to sustain things," he said.
Redmond stressed that most of the training decisions the Burnaby department makes depend on how much time they have to allocate.
"If it's required training, we find the time," he said.
But if the training is in an extra field, most of the time Redmond chooses to provide that only as general information, rather than actually certifying his officers.
He said he does this because the alternative would require continual recertification, and his department doesn't have the time or staff to do such a thing.
