Emergency Response

Central York Fire Services provides a range of emergency response services to the two towns. These include, but are not limited to:

CYFS responds to approxiately 5000 calls for service each year. About 3600 of these are emergencies. The level of service for each of these responses is composed of three elements - equipment, staff and response time.

The response time is a consistent issue for all emergency responses. The stated benchmark for CYFS first vehicle on scene within six minutes, 90% of the time.

Central York Fire Services has five on-duty crews in the Suppression Division assigned to four fire stations. These crews staff four engines and one aerial platform firefighting apparatus. These five crews also have the availability of a tanker vehicle and a hazardous materials response vehicle with trailer for first run responses.

 In the event of a major occurrence occupying three or more of the on-duty crews, there is a protocol in place that off duty firefighters will be paged to respond to the four stations and staff as many as four reserve apparatus. These reserve apparatus consist of two engines and two telesquirts.

 In addition to the initial response expected as outlined in the service benchmarks, there are additional demands for staffing that may arise depending on the specific hazards, size of the incident and duration of the incident. These include the need to provide for firefighter rest and rehabilitation.