Looking back over 2022, the Portage la Prairie Fire Department saw some major changes take place both at the hall and in leadership. Among those, Deputy Brad Bailey became Chief.

"Phil Carpenter, longtime chief, retired after 44 years of service with the city of Portage and the Fire Department," says Bailey. "So, it was quite an undertaking to move into the new role and take over from Where he had left off. Phil had lots of knowledge and experience over the years, so it was a good learning experience, and we had a great transition getting me ready for this new role."

Bailey notes his position as Deputy Chief was filled by Norm Vuignier.

2022 saw a new truck added to their fleet.

"We took delivery of a brand new Spartan fire truck," continues Bailey. "It was built by Fort Garry Fire Trucks in Winnipeg. It has some extra features. We have a command light that will light up, essentially, a football field. That's helpful in scenarios when we're dealing at night and for safety reasons. We also you can add it that way."

Call volumes were pretty much consistent through the year.

"We're right in around the 500 call mark for the year," says Bailey. "October was our highest call month with 55 incidents. Most of our calls range from fire alarms, both commercial and residential, motor vehicle accidents, auto fires, and miscellaneous other fires such as wildland fires and structure fires. There was a fire at NutriPea. We've had a few challenging fires this year. We've had multi-family units with fire in them. Luckily, all the fire safety systems were in place and we were able to quickly extinguish the fires and contain it to a single unit as well."

He notes other challenges included commercial fires in industrial plants where they utilized their equipment and ladder truck to effectively put them out and save time and property.

Bailey says there have been several female firefighters ever since he worked at the department, but last year saw six, which was the most. He notes they're all part-time, and they're looking forward to the day when a full-time female firefighter joins them. 

"With the retirements and some staff movements, we've been able to fill the hall with some new positions," adds Bailey. "We've hired two recent new firefighters."

He notes following the pandemic, they were able to get back into the community.

"Which was a huge plus for our department," notes Bailey. "We were able to go to the schools. We were able to attend events and be part of the community again. We were missing being part of the community and it did have an effect on our departments. It's always best to be out in the community with lots of public education and just being in contact with the people that we serve."

Bailey adds education takes up most of their efforts in Portage. 

"For every event that we do attend, we always try to put an element of education into it," explains Bailey. "Even if we're there for fun, we'll hand out literature on fire safety and try to teach the kids and residents about fire safety and the importance of it for our community."

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