The Fort Saskatchewan fire services master plan has been revealed.
The plan was presented at Wednesday's (Mar. 21) committee and gives an extensive look at the current ability of the city's fire department and some ways to improve upon it.
The plan was put together by BEHR Integrated Solutions.
"I look at it as more of an evaluation for where our fire service is at and they provide recommendations on how to address any gaps that were identified," said Darrick Graff, the president of the Fort Saskatchewan Firefighters Association.
In total, BEHR made 27 recommendations on how to improve the city's fire service. One of those recommendations was to add a second fire hall to help even out the response time for all areas of the city.
"The second fire hall would definitely address some of our response gaps in the annexed areas and where we got large urban development," said Graff. "It would definitely address the gap in the south end of the city and in preparation for future growth as well."
With that, there was also a recommendation to increase some of the staffing levels to a minimum of six on-duty firefighters all the time. This would be an increase from their current number of four at all times.
"As the city grows the number of emergency incidents will increase," said the report. "An increase in larger, more complex incidents and concurrent incidents will drive the need to increase response capacity or accept a reduced level of service."
Firefighter training was also addressed in the plan. At the moment, Fort Saskatchewan firefighters rent out the Spruce Grove training tower to do live fire training.
The report recommends finding a closer option.
"A modern training facility including a local live fire training structure would provide reliable training opportunities that can be scheduled based exclusively on the needs of the [Fort Saskatchewan Fire Department]," said the report.
"The ability to provide identified training needs within Fort Saskatchewan will provide cost efficiencies and increase the ability to provide on-shift training with minimal effect to response capabilities."
Fort Saskatchewan city council is currently in the process of going through the report and will make decisions on whether or not to accept the recommendations sometime in the future.
To read the entire report, click here.