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NEWS
INDEX
Confused about how to get around the new Brownsey Road roundabout. Here’s a useful guide to help you out Page 3
News Opinion Sports
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
ARTS 3 8 31
Sooke is Selling!
The All Sooke Arts & Crafts Christmas Fair eyes a return to the Sooke Community Hall later this month Page 31
Black Press C O M M U N I T Y
N E W S
2015 Sooke Home Sales: 327 2014 Sooke Home Sales: 338 TAMMI DIMOCK
Personal Real Estate Corp.
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M E D I A
AmbulANce reSpONSe timeS gettiNg SlOwer Sooke Fire Rescue responds to medical emergencies when ambulances unavailable
time to respond and more pressure is being applied to Sooke Fire Rescue firefighters, who respond to medical emergencies when ambulances aren’t available. Recently, Sooke firefighters waited more than 50 minutes at a medical call for an ambulance to arrive, and of 54 first responder calls firefighters answered this year, ambulance Kevin Laird paramedics took more than 10 minutes Sooke News Mirror to arrive, Sorensen said. Peter Thorpe, executive director of Changes to protocol have led to metro operations for B.C. Ambulance slower ambulance response times, says Service, said calls and response times Sooke’s fire chief. have increased in Sooke over the last The B.C. Ambulance Service three years from 1,012 calls to 1,252 changed its resource allocation plan, in 2014-15. It takes an ambulance, on downgrading the response to 74 average, nine medical situations “We don’t mind going on the minutes and from Code 3 to seconds to Code 2. Instead calls, but when we have to wait 20 15 respond on a of an ambulance minutes for the ambulance to get Code 3 call and being dispatched with lights and there that’s taking us out of service 12:14 on Code 2. sirens, they’re that much longer.” “I have great treated as a empathy for your routine. – Steve Sorensen, [fire department]. “There’s logic Sooke fire chief At the end of behind it, but the day they do it falls short in arrive on the scene first, and on some rural areas,” said Sooke Fire Chief Steve occasions wait a period of time Sorensen. for an [ambulance] to come,” Sooke was once considered a rural Thorpe said. station with two stations and one fullThe Sooke ambulance station time unit chief. Other paramedics were responds to about 2,500 calls a year part-time and available by pager. in the Greater Sooke area. Sooke Fire With the reallocation, Sooke became Rescue answers 1,000 calls and about part of the Greater Victoria cache of 45 percent of those are for medical ambulances. Now Sooke is just one emergencies. station that responds to incidents throughout the region, based on availability. SEE AMBULANCE • PAGE 36 The result? Ambulances are taking
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Kevin Laird/Sooke News Mirror
In Remembrance Royal Canadian Legion member Martha Moore sells poppies in front of Coast Capital Credit Union in Sooke Friday. Moore’s husband was a Second World War veteran. Remembrance Day ceremonies are Nov. 11.
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