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beyond blood sugar: the hidden connections of type 2 diabetes

vancouver firefighters bending under pressure of city's overdose crisis

by david carrigg
published dec 01, 2025
read time 2 minute read
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read time 2 minute read
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firehall vancouver
premier david eby tours vancouver fire rescue's firehall #2, the station that bears the brunt of the overdose crisis in the downtown eastside, on december 9, 2022. fire chief karen fry briefs the premier. felipe fittipaldi / government of b.c.
vancouver fire and rescue services is limiting the number of shifts firefighters work at its downtown eastside firehall due to the overwhelming number of overdose calls personnel must attend.
according to a recent agency post on social media, there were 54 overdose calls in the city on nov. 21, a single-day record. firehall 2 at the corner of main and powell streets responded to most of them.
the agency also reported the number of overdose calls jumped significantly in november, with an average of 45 a day in the third week of november.
“last week there were 452 emergency calls into firehall 2’s district, compared to 229 last year during the same period,” the agency stated on x on nov. 26.
in an effort to avoid “compassion fatigue” — exhaustion and emotional withdrawal from repeated exposure to traumatic events — the fire service is limiting firefighters to 81 shifts in a career lifetime total at firehall 2.
meanwhile, b.c. had the highest number of calls ever made to 911 for toxic drug poisoning during the week of nov. 17-21, the first nations health authority reported.
the authority attributed the jump to drug dealers mixing the veterinary drug medetomidine with fentanyl and then mixing that with street drugs.
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medetomidine is not a controlled substance and is used to help control aggression in animals or for pre-surgical sedation.
b.c. declared a state of public health emergency in 2016 due to the opioid overdose crisis. the worst year of overdose deaths since then was 2023 when 2,589 deaths were reported. most of the deaths are due to the opioid fentanyl being mixed into street drugs.
many people survive overdoses, due in part to the widespread availability of the reversal drug naloxone, but it can leave people with permanent brain damage.
the b.c. coroners service’s latest unregulated drug deaths report, issued sept. 30, showed there were 1,384 deaths in the province this year up to that point.
overdoses are the greatest cause of unnatural death in b.c. by a wide margin.
dcarrigg@postmedia.com
david carrigg
david carrigg

i am an experienced journalist who has worked in this field for almost 30 years. i was trained in albany, western australia, for the albany advertiser at a time when they were still instructing new reporters how to write in shorthand. many things have changed in our industry since then, but the stories remain. i have written about almost everything over the years and still very much enjoy the job and the privilege it gives me meeting people from every walk of life.

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