I have been quiet on the Fire Hall No. 1 relocation until research was done on this important topic. After considerate thought, here is my opinion on this issue.
The proposed location for the new fire hall is to locate it further from the high assessed value of commercial buildings in the DBIA as well as the Queensway light industrial area and move it to Carrie Jane Gray Park. After reading the Prince George Fire Rescue Standards of Cover report, there is something clearly wrong with this notion.
In June 2016, staff and council received the report which was written to assist Prince George Fire Rescue to review its responses to incidents within its mandate. At the time, PGFR was facing a potential downgrade of its rating by the Fire Underwriters that could negatively affect insurance rates for commercial and industrial properties.
The accepted Canadian standard is to provide 14 trained fire fighters to arrive at a structure fire within eight minutes, 90 per cent of the time. Travel distance to structures within the response area is critical. Fire Hall No. 1 handles 52 per cent of the City's entire calls.
The report recommended that the station relocate to a more central location within its response district, namely further south, such as 20th Avenue and Victoria Street, to be closer to the established light to heavy industrial areas on the east side of the Fraser down to the southern city limits. That includes the new Boundary Road light industrial development and airport.
I remember that the fire department took an extraordinary long time to respond to the NT Air hanger fire in December 2009.
When tested on travel distance and time to get to a fire at the southern end of the BCR industrial site, the existing location is about 11 kilometres away, with 14 minutes standard traffic travel time.
The proposed location in Carrie Jane Gray Park is about
10 km away, within 12 minutes.
If a site can be found at the southern end of Queensway, close to the bridge, the distance is about eight kilometres with a 10-minute travel time.
The other component needing to be addressed, according to the report, is the development of an enhanced training site which would include classroom space, training props and a live burn facility. This must be added to a new facility in an area that is conducive for the needs. Carrie Jane Gray is not the appropriate site for these exercises.
On the other hand, a pool in that area would be perfect, after the fire hall is completed in another location.
We are a sprawling city. We have a high number of industrial buildings with industrial rail and road traffic serving them. On top of that, we are surrounded by forested lands with a high potential for interface wildfires.
The report identifies that Kamloops has seven fire halls and Nanaimo five. Discounting our major fires in 2011 and 2012, Prince George has a significantly higher fire loss than either Kamloops or Nanaimo.
It is clear to me that we are not facing the fact that we do not have enough fire halls to cover the city.
As far as Fire Hall No. 1 goes, it can be renovated to meet building standards and continue to respond to the northern part of the current area coverage in a timely manner.
It is time to build Fire Hall
No. 5 with the training centre on the east side of the Fraser to protect the existing and developing areas. There are enough properties available. I know the proposed property is "free," but it comes at a cost of not addressing all the requirements of Prince George's fire safety needs which must all come first.
