Might as well invest in some newer fire vehicles too. Some of those trucks are getting up there in age and they are slow, especially those yellow fire trucks.

Want to add more firefighters, train volunteers.

Wow, demolish the coliseum and fire hall.. room for the PAC..is there some backroom conversations going on that the taxpayers are not aware ?

Anyone done the cost analysis to compare the cost savings of improved service (insurance rates) vs the increased taxes to cover these “improvements”?

Fire halls are boring, what this city needs is a Performing Arts Center, now that is sexy!!

Where are the administrative offices for the department? Most cities our size have a larger central station which houses the admin offices as well as several fire engines/companies.

The proposal for the 20th and Vitoria site is good, in my opinion. That was the suggested “optimum” site for the RCMP station as well. Good access to arterial roads.

However, there is some property on Victoria behind the WorkSafeBC building. Time the firehall got as much recognition as the RCMP got with a grandiose building beyond belief. :-)

New Fire Hall? No problem!

Give Justin a call! He can cut a cheque for infrastructure spending! That is, if there’s any money left after all of the infrastructure spending that he’s doing in OTHER countries!

No money left? No problem! Rack up the deficit!!

I look forward to Justin announcing the construction of our new “Justin Trudeau/Prince George Fire Hall #1. After all, isn’t Mayor Lynn Hall his new best friend?

“Justin Trudeau/Prince George Fire Hall #1″

Great name! Go for it!

Just want to make sure I understand this. Roads still need upgrading, sewer and waterlines still need upgrading, need to borrow money to replenish snow removal equipment, our fire protection services are undermanned (gee, not like you’d ever need firefighters – re Ft. Mc), police are undermanned.

You’d think with a list like that, you would never hear a peep about feel good projects like – first to admit it, painting and building bike lanes, sporting events, outdoor parties, trips by city council members. And then there’s the millions in grants to various community organizations. For an example – what is more important – a fire truck, or a community theatre that caters to the wealthy – no one on welfare can afford a TNW ticket.

But I guess when you have the power of taxation you can always have the best of both worlds, even if the person you’re taxing is on CPP, OAS, a small company pension, all of which got increases of 1% last year. But I guess that pensioner could go to the theatre – if he could afford it.

BTW – this isn’t an anti TNW rant, it’s an anti all that kind of stuff rant.

This is how the game is played. Fire Marshall outlines the needs of the community and makes a proposal to City Hall. (No mention of the cost of the consultants Mitchel and Co.) The City then goes through the motions of looking into this request.

Notice that the Fire Chief suggested that it be located near 20th and Victoria. So probably in the area that some people suggested that the Police station be built a few years ago. The old car lot, or perhaps further West. Has the City already have an option on property in this area?? If not then why are we making it public that we would be looking at this area.??

So, we cannot get fourteen people to respond to a fire in the required 8 minutes, and therefore we must add another unit to Firehall one. A unit would be a minimum or 4 people and more likely 5. So just for the firefighters it would cost us close to a million dollars per year. No doubt they would also want an increase in office staff, so up it goes again. There is less chance of getting to a fire in 8 minutes from 20th Ave than from 7th depending on where the fire is. So all in all this looks like nothing more than the usual smoosh to get a new building and add a few staff.

Could we train some volunteers to attend these fires and fill out the requirements. Volunteers cost much less and are used all over the Province.

Volunteers used all over the Province . Operative word used/had . I thank all the fire fighters for their services . None of you should have to put your lives and health on the line for free ! What is the cost of fires and car crashes in lives if it were not for you ? Anyone that thinks that you should not be paid for your service should be ashamed of themselves and should be given no respect . Again fire fighters/ life savers thank you for helping to keep our society civil and safer . You deserve raises above inflation .

Take a listen to tonights council meeting, it will enlighten you.

Theres a shopping list of issues with the #1 hall, some of them include.

– oldest building the city owns
– In the flood plain
– too small for the requirements of a 21st century dept.
– No room to expand onsite

The City of PG got away from volunteers
over 20 yrs ago, yes Kamloops and Kelowna may still have some, but they are getting away from them too.

The Fire service in Canada is an insurance driven industry, the insurance industry sets the standards, and if the Fire Dept. doesn’t meet those standards, rates will rise.

Please take a good look at the services PGFD supplies, they are not a one trick pony.

Firstly, as full disclosure, I used to work for PGFRS as the Chief Communications Officer. I had to resign and move five years ago due to a significant health issue related to the air quality. I have not had any involvement in this report nor do I have any vested interest in its outcome. I appreciate that public safety is an important matter for taxpayers as the public safety budget (police and fire) is typically the number one budget item for municipalities. With that, I thought I would offer some factual information.

The administration offices are located at Fire Hall No. 1, as is the centralised fire dispatch centre (the centre provides dispatch services throughout central and north-west BC under a fee-for-service agreement with the regional district). Fire Hall No. 1 is subject to flooding and has been inundated in the past and this does affect operations.

There are no Fire Marshals in BC; BC has the Office of the Fire Commissioner (OFC) and for the most part, the OFC provides oversight, assistance, and guidance. Fire services in BC are legislated by way of the Fire Services Act. The operational requirements for fire services are the responsibility of the local government (municipality or regional district) and the local government is responsible for establishing the operating standards (through bylaw) as well as establishing the service standard. The industry service standards are developed by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA); NFPA addresses all aspects of the fire service including operations, training, communications, etc. Municipalities can adopt a response standard less than NFPA understanding this is a risk management issue. While I am not a lawyer, there has been legal precedence for municipalities adopting lower fire service standards based on a municipalities’ risk/benefit analysis.

Fire station location studies are conducted using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) running advanced algorithms that consider travel distance, road class, travel speed, traffic congestion based on hour of the day, total available apparatus type of apparatus, etc. There are also predictive software modelling applications that can be used to suggest the reassignment of apparatus based historical incident data.

The use of paid on call (volunteer) firefighters, in my opinion, has a benefit in municipal fire services but the senior management of the department and the municipality must consider the response time of the paid on call members (their all out) to the station to augment the career fire fighter response versus the time required to have the appropriate number of fire fighters on scene to action the fire. The response times identified by NFPA are based on scientific studies of fire behaviour and the most appropriate time to extinguish the fire to limit damage, fire spread, flash over, etc.

Municipalities must make difficult financial decisions when considering public safety expenditures as well as all of the other critically important municipal costs that must be considered, such as water and sewer infrastructure, roads, parks, etc. I imagine these are not easy decisions to make.