Firefighters at a vehicle fire in Prince Albert last winter. (Susan McNeil/paNOW)

By Susan McNeil

City discusses new fire halls

Chief speaks to council on new fire stations

Mar 14, 2023 | 9:00 AM

A lot of work has been done ahead of time to make it easier for the City of Prince Albert when it comes to the idea of tripling the number of fire stations.

Fire Chief Kris Olsen told council on Monday that they already have the land, the staff, and most of the equipment needed to outfit two additional stations.

“The good news that I’m here to tell council today is that the land is ours, it’s the City of Prince Albert’s land that’s being requested. We have the staff to staff these stations and because of the forethinking of this council and council’s previous, we have the capital fleet reserve, and we currently have the equipment,” he said.

The city’s current station is on 15^th Street East, near Gateway Mall and is almost 50 years old.

As a location, it was a good choice when it was built but because the city has grown length-wise along the North Saskatchewan River. However, it has resulted in slower-than-recommended response times for crews responding to fires or other emergency calls.

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The standard used in North America calls for a response time of about four minutes for the first engine to arrive at a scene, once the call is out. They should meet this goal about 90 per cent of the time.

The current station allows the department to meet the four-minute response time just over 40 per cent of the time.

A previous recommendation made in 2008 to have a west-side fire station at the 700 block of 28^th Street West has now been modified to south of the Alfred Jenkins Field House, because of the future development and the location of Marquis Road.

Councillor Tony Head told Olsen that the motion to save the two locations already owned by the city was not a difficult one, although future decisions might not be so easy.

“There’s going to be a lot of challenges when we look at the costing of these buildings, grants and funding available but today it’s an easy one to say yes, we’ll hold those lands aside for those future builds,” he said.

Council was also in favour of Olsen’s proposal to create a Fire Station Reserve, starting in the 2024 budget with an initial amount of $500,000.

In current dollars, a two-bay fire station costs between nine and $10 million and, according to the City’s own master plan, they should build one station in the next five years and the second within 10 years.

Council voted unanimously to support both proposals and send them to the next regular meeting for a formal vote.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com