The Westlock Rural Fire Department, which operated out of the Westlock County Industrial Park, has been dissolved due to deteriorating conditions of the fire hall, known as Station 3.
Members of the volunteer fire department will now attend Station 5 in Pickardville and the building will be used as a storage for fire equipment and vehicles. Firefighters will still have access to the building when responding to a call.
The Westlock News learned of the dissolution via a letter addressed to Pickardville and Westlock Rural firefighters dated June 6. A meeting was held June 13 that saw county reps clarify the decision with firefighters.
Obtained from an anonymous source, but verified as authentic, the letter states that Station 3 was “not viable for (Westlock) County to maintain.”
It adds: “The executive identified that the fiscal reality of the resources required to make Station 3 a stand-alone department are not a reality for the County.”
It also states Station 5 — the Pickardville Fire Hall — was informed of the plan May 23. County council had discussed Station 3 during a May 8 in-camera session. Following it, Coun. Dennis Primeau made the motion: “That council receive the report as information and consider the options, this could be a topic for (intermunicipal collaboration framework) discussions.”
Deputy reeve Brian Coleman, speaking as the Div. 4 councillor where Station 3 is located, confirmed the May 8 discussion and said the decision finalizes operational changes that were made when the Westlock Rural Fire Department chief stepped down last year.
“The situation with Westlock Rural really has not changed, it is not an official fire station,” he said.
“It’s purely an operational issue, it’s not a strategic issue that council needs to be involved with.”
Chief administrative officer Leo Ludwig said the decision was made after administration concluded it would cost too much to bring the hall up to modern operational health and safety standards.
“In order to fully comply with all the legislation, OH&S, you have to upgrade facilities and there have been a lot of changes made in the last few years by OH&S, so we would have been looking at significant upgrades,” he said. “It is another step in the continuation of the county’s ongoing efforts to effect progressive change for efficiencies and a more effective and responsible stewardship of public tax funds. Our community expects and deserves no less.”
Another factor in the decision was the potential opportunity for greater integration with the Town of Westlock through regional collaboration. While the town and county fire departments already have a mutual-aid agreement, should the county and its neighbours work out a more detailed arrangement more changes could be on the way.
“One of the six areas of review was fire services, to see whether there was an opportunity for some sort of intermunicipal collaboration that we don’t do now,” said Ludwig.
“It’s very common across the province to have fire service agreements between municipalities. That may, or may not, occur between the county and the town.”
Ludwig stressed the changes were simply organizational and he did not expect to see any changes in response times.
“The changes are internal operational items and there are no significant impacts or changes to the services provided to our community,” he said.
“We are only changing logistics in terms of training, command structure and management as they are being consolidated. These are internal adjustments that improve efficiencies and address a number of the cost impacts of running a multi-station rural fire service. The county fire service as a whole was not reorganized as this internal change only impacts two of six stations and only a portion of the operations of those two.”
Coleman said residents should not be concerned.
“The only thing that’s changed is they are reporting to the fire chief in Pickardville and he decides the amount and type of training,” he said.
“I live in the county, I am a ratepayer and I think there will be no change in the service and there may be an improvement to the training. We’re on track.”
