City of Langley Fire Rescue decides against carrying naloxone

Firefighterswith the City of Langley have temporarilydecided against carrying the opiate-blocker naloxone, unlike some of their colleagues in Metro Vancouver.

Illicit drug overdose deaths rose by 27 per centin B.C. last year and 50 per centin the Fraser Valley.

"In some communities where the response wait times for an ambulance to come are greater, the benefit of having firefighters use it is huge, but wedon'thave those type of circumstances here,"saidDeputy FireChief KellyGilday.

"LangleyCity is only foursquare miles the ambulances usually get there quite quickly and they're often there before us."

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Gilday says firefighters have to wait to get permission from a doctor before administering naloxone, whereas paramedics can administer theoverdose-reversing drugnaloxone immediately.

Surrey and Vancouver firefighters began to carry naloxone in January in response to the sharp increase in overdose-related deaths.

Also, although the cost of the drug itself is minimal, Gilday says there would be additional costs to train firefighters on how to use it.

The decision, however, isn't set in stone.

"We haven't made a final decision yet," Gildaysaid."If we have an incident where call times slow down, then we'll meet again and re-evaluate the situation."

Firefighters with theTownship ofLangley have also decided against carrying the naloxone.