2nd Fire Hall

COUNCIL’S TV FORUM – CBK. SATELLITE FIRE HALL TERMED ESSENTIAL.-

            City council Wednesday charged Cranbrook residents to vote for a satellite fire hall in the November 16 referendum.

            The city badly needs it, they said.

            Most people will personally never need the fire department, but when they do, it’s essential.  “People don’t look on it as an essential service until they need it,” said Mayor Ty Colgur.

            Steph Atchison, who explained the fire hall proposal on council’s phone-in television forum, said the present fire hall cannot adequately serve the community now and the situation will get worse as the city expands.

            “The first five minutes are the most important,” Atchison said.  “In two cases I can think of off hand, it takes more than ten minutes to get to the scene of a fire.”

            “After ten minutes, they might as well stay home.”

            Most of the questions residents phoned in concerned the fire hall rather than the two other proposed services covered by the referendum: storm sewers and roads.

            Questioners were especially interested in the proposed location of the new fire hall.

            About five years ago, council bought some land at the east end of the city at 2 St. S. and the hospital road.  This is where the satellite fire hall will be located if the voters approve the expenditure.

            “The location depends entirely on how the city develops,” Atchison said.  The property was bought after a detailed study of the city’s future growth.

            Since the site was purchased, the surrounding area has been built up.  “You must take the service to where the people are,” Atchison said.

            Another reason for the location, he said, is that most of the city is downhill from the proposed site.  “It’s much easier (and faster) to run a fire truck downhill than up.”

            The new station will not stick out in the residential area.  “The building will be architecturally to the surrounding area,” he said.

            The hall will have two truck bays, two stories and a training tower.

            The project will cost taxpayers about $375,000 over 20 years.  This includes a mandatory 15 per cent contingency fee and interest.

            The cost of the specialized building and training facility is about $60 per square foot.

            Regardless of whether the new fire hall is built, the fire chief has requested four more men over two years, Atchison said there should be one fireman for every 1,000 people.

            The fire department has no training facilities of its own at present, but practices on vacant buildings.

            The new hall provides a tower that can be used for ladder practice and in which fires can be set and extinguished.

            Atchison did not say the new fire hall would affect homeowner’s fire insurance rates but “we try and (p16) maintain a satisfactory level in this area,” and keep it equitable.  “At present we are in a goof position.”

            In answer to a question from Panorama Heights, fire chief Vern Doll who was in the audience at city hall said, off the air, that the fire department would not answer fire calls outside the city limits.

            “We’d just let it burn down,” he said.  The department used to answer calls and bill individuals for the service, but people didn’t pay the bills, he said.

            Atchison said the city does not intend to buy much new equipment, but will move equipment from the present fire hall.

            A new truck is on order for 1976, he said.