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City of Surrey and UFV provide $30,000 for public safety research
Ongoing support for public safety research will be the legacy of a B.C. Fire Service conference organized by the City of Surrey and University of the Fraser Valley (UFV).
The $30,000 proceeds from the symposium will be used to provide a $5,000 research grant and to establish the City of Surrey Fire Research Endowment - the first scholarship fund in B.C. that specifically supports public safety research.
The $25,000 endowment will provide for an annual scholarship of $1,000 for UFV students pursuing public safety studies. The $5,000 research grant will be matched by funds available from the Centre for Public Safety and Criminal Justice Research and the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at UFV. The one-time $10,000 grant is available, in whole or in part, for public safety research projects by application to the university.
“This funding will support ongoing research that will ultimately result in more informed decision-making and safer communities,” says Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts. “The Surrey Fire Service has been recognized as a leader in developing innovative solutions to increasing public safety, and this is just one more example of that important leadership.”
The Managing High Rises: A Systems Approach for the Fire Service symposium was held at the Justice Institute of British Columbia on September 15 and attracted 175 members of the B.C. fire service and related fields. It promoted the use of best practices and fact-based decision-making to establish systems for managing high-rise incidents.
Surrey Fire Chief Len Garis noted that the research funds are a natural fit with the conference, which shared the successful system Surrey developed for managing high-rise fires through research by the UFV’s Centre for Public Safety and Criminal Justice Research and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at City University of New York.
“We held the conference to share best practices and to reinvest into other like initiatives in fire practices that don’t currently exist,” said Garis, an adjunct professor at UFV's School of Criminology and Criminal Justice.
“Research funds are hard to come by. This funding creates a place to have independent, credible third-party work done in terms of answering questions. It will be there forever, and as the endowment grows, so will the body of research.”
The research funds also relate to Transforming the Fire/Rescue Service, a report submitted to the Provincial Government in late 2009 with the intent of modernizing and transforming the fire service.
The report was produced by the Fire Services Liaison Group (FSLG), representing stakeholders with direct interests in B.C.’s fire service. One of the 14 recommendations urges the creation of a fact-base of research, trends, issues and best practices to support effective decision-making by B.C. governments and the fire service.
“We’re very pleased to see some concrete action being taken to achieve the report recommendations,” said FSLG Chair Steve Gamble, who is also president of the Fire Chiefs’ Association of B.C. “We congratulate the City and UFV for stepping up and taking this step towards creating a safer province.”
Questions about the grant or City of Surrey Fire Research Endowment can be directed to the UFV Centre for Public Safety and Criminal Justice Research at 604-854-4553.
Media Contacts:
Darryl Plecas, Professor and RCMP Research Chair
University of the Fraser Valley
School of Criminology and Criminal Justice
778-808-5055
Steve Gamble, President
Fire Chiefs’ Association of B.C.
604-861-9445
Len Garis, Fire Chief
City of Surrey
778-846-0851
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