Ottawa's fire chief says he trusts firefighters will find proper Naloxone training was worth the wait.
Last week, Ottawa Fire announced its members would soon be able to carry the life-saving overdose drug. For now, paramedics are the only first responders in the city equipped with Naloxone kits.
Chief Gerry Pingitore tells CFRA's The Newsfeed the delay caused some frustration among the service, as there were concerns over what would happen had fire been the first on the scene of an overdose.
"The majority of firefighters, I truly believe, understand why it's taken so long to develop this training program," he says. "Now that they're going to be receiving the training they're going to understand just how important it was to get it right."
Pingitore had said members of the fire service weren't given Naloxone kits despite the drug's availability to members of the public because, unlike regular civilians, firefighters are counted on to save lives and are held to a higher standard.
"We are liable because it is a medical act and we wanted to make sure we never got into a situation where people had to answer a lot of questions," he says.
He says he's confident no recent overdose deaths could have been prevented had firefighters been equipped with Naloxone, despite recent reports to the contrary.
The training program is expected to get underway shortly.