Open House at temporary Fire Hall on Saturday, November 23 from 2-4 p.m.

Fernie Professional Firefighters Local 2827 is reaching out to the community to outline how the temporary Fire Hall is not designed for emergency response and response times to emergency calls are impacted due to its location.

“When we are out and about in the community, we are often asked how things are at our temporary location. The topic of our conversation almost always turns to the delayed responses that now occur,” Fernie Professional Fire Fighters Local 2827 stated on social media Nov. 13.

The current fire hall is located in the old Public Works building on Railway Avenue.

“The Public Works Yard was never designed for emergency responses, but that is where we operate from,” firefighters said.

“When we get dispatched to an emergency incident, we have to walk outside for 100 meters to an Atco trailer where our firefighting gear is stored. There are two locked gates to pass through on the way, each with a keypad code for entry. Despite ongoing efforts, the route is often snow covered or icy in the winter months.

“After we don our gear in the Atco trailer it is another 35 meters to the bays where our trucks are stored. There is another locked door to open at the bays before we can get to the trucks. As we start to respond we can only pull one truck out at a time, the bays are not designed to have two trucks in each bay. There is another locked vehicle gate we must wait to pass through before we can finally leave the yard.

“While driving down the graveled Railway Ave. we hope to not be delayed by the train. At the last two structure fires in the Airport subdivision, we experienced train delays for firefighters responding from home and the responding fire trucks leaving from the yards.

“The majority of our incidents occur on the Highway 3 side of the tracks and it is a concern every time we are dispatched to an emergency. Residents of Ridgemont have probably noticed that we respond through their neighbourhood when we have incidents in the Cokato Road/Montane areas.

“We don’t want to risk being delayed by the train at two crossings or pass through the busy EIDES school zone if we were to use the more direct route and respond through Maintown,” firefighters outlined, adding, “Our temporary location was never designed for emergency responses and we are doing the best we can as we wait for the new Fire Hall to be built.

“The residents of Fernie deserve a quick response when they are experiencing an emergency and we look forward to operating out of a purpose built fire hall in a good location.”

Along with relating their current challenge to the public, firefighters invite all interested citizens to an Open House at the temporary Fire Hall (1492B Railway Ave.) on Saturday, November 23 from 2-4 p.m.

“We will answer questions you might have and give you a tour of the temporary fire hall.”

Fernie Professional Firefighters Local 2827 photo

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