Navigating a rapidly expanding city requires stepping away from the emotions of it all and a hard lean into data, says Cambridge’s newest fire chief.
In a sit-down interview at Cambridge Fire Department’s headquarters on Bishop Street, Damond Jamieson — who was formally appointed as the city’s fire chief by council in April — laid out a data-driven vision for the fire department working to keep pace with a city growing both upwards and outwards.
Jamieson brings 34 years of emergency services experience to the top job, including 30 years with the Cambridge Fire Department and a four-year stint in policing.
“I feel like with the modern fire department, you have to balance operational experience with strategic leadership,” Jamieson said.
One of the biggest changes he said he’s seen is the need for data-driven decision making. You can’t just go to council and ask for more funding but he said you need to show the why more than ever.
Recently, he explained data showed the best station to expand is Station Four on St. Andrews Street, the department’s busiest station he added.
“Our data has basically told us that would be the best station right now to double up, so we’re expanding that station. Instead of one crew, there would be two crews coming out of that location,” he said, adding previous information indicated Station Five at Main Street and Franklin Boulevard should be expanded first.
This modern approach is being tested as developers begin to pitch and get approved for taller buildings and sprawling new subdivisions on the city’s outskirts.
Jamieson said the fire department needs to change as the city changes and adapt through strategic station placements, mutual-aid partnerships with surrounding fire departments and more specialized high-rise training.
“We’ve been involved in specialized high-rise training as our city evolves and definitely strong fire prevention efforts are important,” Jamieson said. “That’s the proactive piece, making sure owners of the building, superintendents, are following legislation.”
In terms of newer subdivisions, Jamieson explained the fire department has input on them, particularly when it comes to access for fire trucks.
“I can think of multiple locations around our city where we had to make some changes to make sure that our fire trucks could get in, get to the sprinkler systems and the standpipe systems and to make sure that we have the proper water supply, those kinds of things,” he said.
Two house fires in April the department responded to were in newer built subdivisions with narrower streets and more dense housing. They were part of a slight uptick in structure fires known to have occurred in March and April.
Investigations have not indicated any connection in these fires and Jamieson noted sometimes there’s no real “rhyme or reason” to why there are sometimes several house fires in a row or long stretches without major structure fires.
“Fires are definitely behaviourally driven, we have to try and make sure people are aware and don’t get complacent,” Jamieson said. “Complacency, a lot of times, that’s what causes fires right? Not that we don’t know, but we let our guards down.”
Overall, Jamieson said he is honoured to serve as fire chief for the city and stressed he is focused on delivering the highest level of service to the community.