Airdrie City council approved the closure and relocation of the Main Street firehall at the regular meeting on Sept. 2.
The Main Street location will not be closed until the new firehall on Veteran’s Boulevard in the Williamstown neighbourhood is completed, which is expected to be in late October of 2015.
Firefighters from Main Street will relocate to the new firehall when it opens.
The closure of the Main Street firehall has been at the centre of controversy since the issue was first raised at City council in March of 2013.
Residents of Airdrie were invited to provide their input on the proposed closure at a number of public hearings and open houses, including an open house at City Hall on March 27, 2014, that drew about 30 residents.
The issue for many was the potential for delays in response times if a train prevented fire crews from crossing from the westside firehall in Chinook Winds to an emergency on the east side of the tracks.
Mayor Peter Brown said ultimately he decided to listen to the experts.
“At the end of the day, (the Airdrie Fire Department (AFD)) do such an awesome job keeping us safe. If they say, and they are our experts when it comes to safety in this community, that they will not let us down by moving the hall, then how can we not support them?” Brown said.
“If you read all the data and you’ve got all the details around how many times has the train interfered with our services. (It’s) very, very minute: one per cent,” Brown added.
“When it’s happened, we’ve only been affected on our response times once out of 1,300 calls. It’s hard to suggest we need to keep something open just because something may or may not occur.”
Alderman Fred Burley, who is a resident of Waterstone, said he supported the closure of the Main Street firehall.
“My mind was not made up until I got this report and read it,” Burley said.
“As a resident in that area, I’m not concerned anymore.”
Fire Chief Kevin Weinberger presented a report to City council on Sept. 2, including information about response times.
Weinberger said the AFD monitors its response times on a monthly and quarterly basis.
The department’s current response time averages five minutes and 29 seconds.
This average is based on 726 emergency calls this year.
Weinberger said this is less than the industry standard set by the National Fire Protection Agency in 2010 at six minutes, 50 seconds.
Weinberger said the AFD has been working with CP Rail to develop a system that will allow the fire department to be notified when a train is within city limits or just approaching.
“Currently, we’re working with our IT department on infrared sensors that will provide us (with) notification anytime a train is going through the city of Airdrie, either northbound or southbound,” Weinberger said.
“We’ll have a visual display in all our firehalls that tells our crews that there’s either a train coming across one of the crossings or that has already gone through. We’ll be able to update our other stations to either advance faster or that they can maintain their deployment.”
The infrared system is the first of its kind in Canada, according to Weinberger.
The planning leading to implementation of the new system took approximately six months.
Weinberger said CP Rail does not allow the AFD to place anything on their crossing arms so much of the planning was figuring out where best to place the sensors.
“We had to come up with some alternatives ways through (using) cameras and infrared lighting (that) triggers (a warning), basically just like in a garage, that can go across the tracks that we can monitor,” he explained.
“We look after all the maintenance on it.”
Weinberger said the AFD looked at other train notification systems at cities in eastern Canada, including Toronto, and in Yorkton, Saskatchewan. None of them are using infrared, however.
“Down east they do some things in the city of Toronto, but nothing like this,” Weinberger said. “Nothing with the infrared. It’s just camera-based.”
The cost to implement the new train notification system is $15,000 of the city’s operational funds, according to Weinberger. The cost includes three cameras, two infrared systems, and the monitoring computers and software needed at the firehalls.
Alderman Candice Kolsen said the new technology played into the way she decided to vote.
“It’s a tough decision but as a council we need to make the best (decision) for everyone to make sure everyone is covered,” Kolsen said.
“The new technology on the tracks is excellent.”
The AFD currently employs a multi-deployment model when responding to all calls said Weinberger.
“We deploy more than one station, always two at a minimum (to all events), lots of times three, depending on the call,” he explained.
City council also voted to begin construction of a new firehall in Airdrie’s northeast near Veteran’s Boulevard and Hamilton Boulevard one year sooner than originally planned in the Fire Master Plan. This will require moving $500,000 for design to the 2016 budget and $5 million for construction to the 2017 budget. The new firehall will be operational in 2018.
Brown said he hoped starting construction of the northeast firehall earlier than anticipated would help alleviate some residents’ concerns.
“We’ve already said we’re fast tracking the other station on the northeast corner,” Brown said.
“If we close the Main Street firehall, we’d have to blow it up and build another one. That’s 18 months of time that would be needed (to construct a new hall at that site). By the time (the northeast hall) opens, we’ll be six months behind. There’s a stop gap of six to eight months where we’re not on the east side.”
The Fire Master Plan, presented to City council in March of 2013, outlines plans that would ultimately see firehalls constructed in all four quadrants of the city by 2018.
