It was an interesting 2014 for the Athabasca Fire Department, and 2015 will be filled with changes.
Recently selected fire chief Bryan Hall presented the department’s annual report and look into the future to Athabasca town council at their regular meeting last Tuesday, and hoped the report would show council just how the department is doing, as well as how it will continue to work with council and administration.
“We do have a new push and emphasis on making sure that we’re transparent,” said Hall. “We want to make sure that council understands what we’re doing, as well as through the proper channels so that everyone’s aware what the fire department’s up to and where we want to go with things.”
Last year the department responded to around 100 calls, though Hall stated the exact figure wasn’t available due to changing to a centralized dispatching service about halfway through 2014.
Hall added that 29 per cent of the responses last year were for false alarms, with medical assistance calls coming next at 17 per cent.
“We did see a decrease in serious motor vehicle collisions, which is a good thing. We haven’t had any fatalities that we’ve responded to. This is also a good thing,” he said.
“In the past, we’ve had anywhere from five to 12 in one year, which is a lot, especially for volunteer members.”
There was a significant increase in the number of structure fires – from two in 2013 to nine – and in wildland fires, from four to 11.
Regarding wildfires and the fact many homes are so close to trees, Hall brought up one concern that came out of a fire that occurred in the valley last year that took two hours to extinguish.
“So, you can imagine if we had more than that and it gets into some of the treetops, it’s coming up the hill and we could be running into some major problems,” he said.
“It’s of concern, because it’s obviously been on the minds of everyone since 2011, when Slave Lake had their fires. It’s kind of went to the wayside and we haven’t really pushed for it in discussion.”
Changes in 2015
The biggest focus in the upcoming year will be on recruitment.
“Our top priority right now is recruitment and retention,” said Hall.
“Turnover is huge. People come and go, that’s just the way that it is. We’ll be doing as much diligent work as we can to keep those numbers.
“We have to continue to change and we have to continue to grow as a service. We are doing that and I feel that with our officer core the way it is and the membership that we have, the town can rest assured that we have a fully competent and well developed fire department right now and obviously we’re going to push for better things.”
One big change will be the arrival of the department’s new rescue/pumper unit, which is slated to show up in the next few months and be put into service sometime this summer. The unit was ordered last year to replace an aging rescue truck that was recently sold.
Hall also said the department is planning to implement of a fire prevention program during 2015.
Building repairs
Included in the report was an update on the status of the fire hall. As it is an aging building, there needs to be some repairs done – specifically, the boiler, air exchange system and the bay doors.
“We had a new building 20-something years ago and it hasn’t changed since, and there’s a lot of things we need to discuss going forward with that,” said Hall.
The department has received baseline quotes on repairs that each of the items need and it would simply be cheaper to replace them.
“We’ve had an upgrade done last year (on the boiler) because it pooped out on us, to say the least, and the plumbers that were in there basically said we need a new one,” Hall said.
“We do have (safety) audits now … within the building and a lot of this has come to light through that. And as well, we’ve had mice problems through the bay doors. We spend probably more money in heat in a year just because of the style of door that we do have and the space that’s there.”
“Is it fair to say we’re looking at a lot more repairs then?” Mayor Roger Morrill asked. “We looked at a fairly major expenditure last year. Are we looking at a lot of expenditures now to obtain things as we go forward?”
Hall replied, “As it stands right now, those are the main safety objectives. It is starting to become an issue. It could be our fault for not putting it forward sooner, but we’re past that point now.”
