Carseland Fire Department location approved

Shannon LeClair
Times Reporter

 

For years the Carseland Fire Hall has been in need of more space. The current hall was built in 1987, and due to growth, increased demand and changes to the fire industry, the department has outgrown the current location.
“They have outgrown the existing site and the building. In its present location it doesn’t really allow for them to do any hands-on operational training, they can’t do any fires, they can’t cut apart any cars, they certainly could but it would put everybody at risk and we don’t have the lands available for them to do those types of exercises on,” said Judy Unsworth, Fire and Emergency Manager for Wheatland County.
Consultations were had with the firefighters, the officers and district chief during the fire services review to determine where and what would be a good fit for the Carseland Fire Department.
Besides the need for expansion, it was also determined during the review that the hall needs to be located away from the CP Rail mainline where it is currently located. If anything were to happen on the rail line there the firefighters would not be able to access the fire hall.
The new hall location will be across the highway on a location adjacent to the existing Waste Transfer Site, south of Carseland along Hwy #24.
It is located away from the CP rail lines, and the other thing to consider, said Unsworth, is that one third of all response personnel live outside of the Hamlet of Carseland, so they won’t be prohibited by the trains.
The land is municipally owned and there is already some servicing on it.
“It really does provide a safe and adequate location for the guys to perform training evolutions,” said Unsworth.
“I’m looking forward to the future benefits that brings for our communities,” said Carseland resident Marcy Field on Facebook, about the increased space for training that the new location will allow the members.
Concerns have been raised about the firefighters having to wait for the train to go by before they can get into the trucks, but it’s possible they could get into the trucks and still be waiting on the trains to respond.
“District Chief Heilman indicated that there are multiple exits from the Hamlet of Carseland including one a mile east and one a mile west, given that trains can occasionally be up to two miles in length it stands to reason that one or the other exit would always be available to the firefighters to muster at the hall,” said Field.
At council Unsworth presented a graph to outline where the calls were coming in from. In 55 per cent of the calls in 2013 were north of the train tracks and 60 per cent were south of the tracks in 2014.