Chantal Bibeau has been working at the Service de sécurité incendie de Laval for 30 years. After having been an inspector for the Prevention Division, a Lieutenant, an Investigator and Chief of Prevention, she is now the Division Chief of the Prevention Department.

The Prevention Division has 23 inspectors and inspector-investigators responsible for the periodic inspection of buildings, educating Laval citizens on fire prevention and safety as well as conducting research on the cause of fires. The primary objective of the division is to avoid the occurrence of fires. “We analyze different incidents that cause fires in Laval and we plan our awareness campaigns in order to prevent those types of incidents from happening,” explains Chief Bibeau. “What’s more, this analysis allows us to identify areas where there are more fire incidents or risky behavior so that we can plan our future inspections.”

Fire prevention is your responsibility!
“In Laval, 40 percent of fires are in private homes, so we pay particular attention to housing in order to sensitize the population on appropriate practices to reduce the risk of fires,” says Chief Bibeau. The primary cause of fires is distraction. In fact, in Laval, it’s poor surveillance of cooking appliances that cause the most fires. “When we perform our inspections, we can determine what caused the fire, but it’s actually the circumstances surrounding the incident that interest us—if the person was distracted while cooking, for example.”

Fire Prevention Week took place October 4th to the 10th under the theme ‘Fire prevention is your responsibility!’ All across Quebec, several activities were organized to promote awareness around proper fire prevention. Securité Publique du Québec is asking all citizens to take responsibility for their own safety. The effects and after-effects of a fire have psychological impacts on both adults and children, as well as socioeconomic impacts. Due to this, it’s so important to understand one’s own role in fire prevention.

Adopting responsible behavior
The most important safety behavior of them all is to be attentive. “When you’re cooking, stay in the kitchen!” says Chief Bibeau. The start of a fire can happen quickly and can worsen quickly. The Service de sécurité incendie de Laval has noted that since COVID-19 began, there have been more fires caused by distraction. For example, people have ordered takeout food and decided to warm it up at home, but then got distracted by a child who was doing online school. “For fried foods, people should really use a deep fryer. It’s safer and will turn itself off after the oil has become too hot,” advises Chief Bibeau. “Also, I can never repeat enough how important it is to have a working smoke alarm. You have to maintain them and change the batteries, because it can really prevent a small fire from getting worse. If you have children, you can even install one in their bedrooms—you can never be too prudent. Municipal regulations stipulate that you must have at least one smoke alarm per floor,” reminds Chief Bibeau.

In 2006, the City of Laval committed to creating a fire risk plan with Securité Publique du Québec, including a tool for the management of fire risks and decision-making for city councillors. It also includes a planning tool for those in charge of rescue operations. For Laval firefighters, the number one objective is prevention. “Ultimately, we hope to reduce the number of incidents, so we’ll continue our awareness and education campaigns,” says Chief Bibeau.