The High River Fire Department's new home is complete and firefighters have moved in.

Fire Chief Cody Zebedee says it doesn't just look great on the outside.

"Yes, it does and the inside is just as nice, the space turned out really well and staff are ecstatic to be in there and I think it's going to serve us well for long time to come into the future."

He says now they're going around with the builder and dealing with any small deficiencies and odds and end to make sure it's all closed off.

It's a lot more than just an expansion of the old building they had occupied for years.

"Some of the big ones for us, a lot of the ventilation stuff has been put into the building, the old building really lacked ventilation for air movement, so we've got new systems in there to make sure the air is always moving in the office spaces as well as the apparatus space for vehicle exhaust and also for getting rid of humidity and things like that so when we wash equipment down we can get rid of the humidity out of the building and hopefully prevent any mould or any issues like that."

Lighting fixtures were changed out and the roof was replaced to increase energy efficiency and heat loss.

"Some of the function stuff for us, added some security to the building with door security on it and then some secure areas as well as decon (decontamination)areas for health and fire fighter safety, so we've added some space in the building where we actually have the ability to have a spot to wash all of our equipment off and properly decontaminate the equipment and also properly decontaminate the fire fighters when they come back from fires and calls like that where we have to make sure our staff are clean and we can make sure our staff can go home healthy and clean at the end of the shift," Zebedee says.

Response times are expected to significantly improve according to Zebedee because they've moved all the main function space down to the ground floor right next to the apparatus bay.

Staff have also purchase some gym equipment so they can work out in the fire hall.

He says unfortunately because of the rising COVID case count a ribbon cutting or open house will have to wait awhile, but the Town's communications department is looking at taking residents on a virtual tour on the Town's website soon.

 

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