LFES takes on Blood Tribe EMS dispatch service
By Alexandra Noad - Lethbridge Herald Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on February 25, 2025.
Herald photo by Alexandra Noad
Drummers perform a traditional Honour Song at Monday's announcement of BTES Fire Dispatch transfer to Lethbridge Fire Emergency Services Public Safety Communication Centre at the Blood Tribe Fire Department.Transitioning Blood Tribe Emergency Services fire dispatch to Lethbridge Fire and Emergency Services will better serve Blood Tribe members, says the tribe’s fire chief.
In announcing the change, Chief Travis Coleman said it will be a major step forward in enhancing the ability to respond quickly and effectively for the community.
“The advancement leads for faster response times, clear communication and better coordination, ultimately improving the safety of our people and our land.”
Before now, the Blood Tribe Fire Department relied on cell phones, which resulted in emergencies occasionally being missed. Coleman said having radio dispatchers will help not only streamline the process of calls, but also allow the Blood Tribe to connect with mutual aid partners.
“Now we can actually respond and we can communicate together to fight better fires and have better outcomes for patients and people and the problems.”
Kevin McKeown, deputy fire chief of communications and strategy for the Lethbridge Fire Emergency Services, said it was a full-circle moment for him, as he began his career working for the Blood Tribe Emergency Services back in 2007.
“It’s incredible to see the progression and a milestone like this for Blood Tribe Emergency Services, where there’s going to be professional fire dispatchers offered through our centre.”
McKeown recalled being a department of only four people responding to any and every call, being both the dispatcher and responding to the call all at the same time.
“You were doing the dispatching yourself,” he noted. “You were picking up the 911 calls yourself, you were doing everything.”
In almost two decades, the Blood Tribe Emergency Services has grown to 65 staff members with 10 working each day, responding to more than 3,500 calls per year.
Coleman said he knew how integral a dispatch system with mutual aid is to emergency services everywhere, so he reached out the Lethbridge Fire Emergency Services to join forces.
After a year of training and finalizing radio tower systems, Coleman said there is still work to be done on the reserve to ensure emergency services can deal with emergencies efficiently.
“We got the dispatch services in place,” he said. “We want to work on our addressing system, educate the community and then we’re going to be that much better another six-months, a year down the road.”
With the new dispatch system, McKeown says members of the Blood Tribe can be assured of the quality of service they will receive.
“Our dispatchers and our centre serve a large portion of southern Alberta, and the departments having a common dispatch centre, and the ability to communicate with each other on portable radios, I think, adds a huge amount of inter-operability between the departments.”
With the new dispatch system, members on the reserve will receive quicker and more efficient responses from both the local and surrounding EMS teams.
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