It didn’t take long for firefighters working out of the new Heritage Pointe Fire Hall to jump into action after it opened its doors last week.
MD of Foothills firefighters were in place at the facility on Sept. 4 at 8 a.m. and didn’t have much time to settle in before their first call came in at 9:25 a.m.
It was a true baptism by fire, or in this case by a car accident, said MD fire chief Jim Smith.
“It was a tad bit of a crazy time there,” he said. “You know when you open a hall there’s a bunch of things that you need to get in order and next thing you know the tones go off.”
Smith said it was good to get the first call out of the way to make sure everything’s working as it should.
“You get all the butterflies out of the way,” he said. “You have expectations and things you think about and worry about and you can put them out of the way after the call.”
MD officials first began work on the new fire hall, located next to the Heritage Pointe commercial centre north of Okotoks, in 2009. The City of Calgary announced that year it would no longer provide fire coverage in northern portions of the MD, which led MD officials to work on a plan to build the new facility.
In 2011, Calgary personnel responded to 70 calls in the MD. With the facility opening last week, the City of Calgary ceased to be responsible for fire coverage in the area, but it will continue provide back up support as needed.
The fire hall is expected to reduce response times in the northern part of MD. Prior to the facility opening the average response time from Calgary was 18.37 minutes. When MD firefighters responded to the Sept. 4 collision, it took them two minutes and five seconds to arrive at the scene at the Okotoks overpass.
The project will end up costing the MD nearly $4.2 million, about $200,000 over budget. The MD expected the facility to cost about $4 million, including the cost to extend water and sewer services to the site. The MD budgeted $300,000 for the water and sewer lines, but it ended up costing $600,000. However, construction of the fire hall itself ended up under budget.
Fire personnel have moved into the building, but there is still some construction work to be completed.
One fire engine is stationed at the building and a water tanker is due to be delivered this week. The station has room to expand its fleet and the MD will evaluate its needs over the next year to see if any other vehicles will need to be located at the station.
The opening of the fire hall is a major milestone for the MD’s fire service.
Smith was the MD’s lone full-time firefighter heading up a volunteer service until just over two months ago. The fire hall is providing full-time, 24-hour-a-day fire coverage to the Heritage Pointe, DeWinton, and Dunbow Road areas in the MD. It is the only fire hall in the MD that will have personnel in place at all hours of the day.
The facility has a roster of 60 full and part-time fire fighters on staff. As well, Smith is joined by eight full-time firefighters, one deputy chief and a full-time administrative clerk.
An open house and grand opening ceremony for the facility will be held on Oct. 13.
