Neepawa Fire Chief addresses Rotary luncheon
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- Published on Thursday, February 18, 2016
By Ken Waddell
Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press
Long time Neepawa Fire Chief Scott Gibson laid out his department’s plans at the Neepawa Rotary meeting on Feb. 12.
“We have two exciting things happening, one is the new fire truck and the other is the new fire hall,” said Gibson.
“We had 24 proposals in 2014 for engineering and construction plans for the fire hall and we boiled it down to three. The one from Calnistsky Engineering was chosen and it was one of the cheapest as well.” Gibson went on to explain that this firm had been involved in fire hall construction at Stonewall, Dauphin, Morden and the Brandon City police station. He said the new hall will be built west of Freezerco on the former CN land, “That’s a good location as it gives good access for in-town and out-of-town calls.”
As to the fire truck situation, Gibson outlined the history of the five trucks. “We try to get a new truck every seven years so the oldest truck is 28-30 years old.” Currently, the number one truck is in for repairs to the pump and that will cost around $30,000. A new truck is being ordered and it’s anticipated it will cost between $350,000 and $360,000.
As for the new fire hall, which has been in the town’s five year capital plan for 20 years, it’s expected to cost $2 million. Gibson said it costs about $13,000 to outfit a firefighter and that the fire department costs about $2,300 per hour to operate.
When asked about the fire departments activities, Gibson said 80 per cent of the calls are to highway traffic accidents. There was discussion about the policy of sending all three services, namely, police fire and ambulance to every 911 call. Gibson explained that it’s a liability issue. “If someone decided to only send an ambulance and you needed a fire truck, there could be a big liability issue.” Therefore all three units, fire, police, and ambulance roll to every call.
One Rotarian suggested that fire inspections might be a good idea but unfortunately, fire departments, under provincial law, can’t do residential fire inspections unless they are asked to do so by an owner, a tenant or under a court order.
