The Lamont Leader (Lamont, Alberta), Wednesday, October 20, 2021 - 9
2021 Salute to our firefighters
New agreement allows County Fire Department to offer better services BY JOHN MATHER Lamont County has signed a regional fire service agreement with its urban municipalities for a 10-year period. “The goal is to essentially maintain an efficient and professional service for residents across the entire county, not just in one town or village,” said Lamont County Fire Chief Shayne Milliken. “The way the agreement is laid out is that the County provides the knowhow and personnel,” he explained. “The County does the financing while the municipalities provide a safe and efficient fire station to house the equipment.” Under the terms of the agreement which was signed during the summer, the fire halls must be looked at in terms of capacity and meeting a variety of codes. In Mundare, the fire hall is outdated and a new firehall is being planned, but it will be several years before it is completed. “We have a couple of fire stations that are in need of attention,” said Milliken. “In terms of capacity and things like that. What we want to make sure we do is strike the right balance between needs and wants. We have to be able to effectively provide the service.” Milliken further explains the County is interdependent on all its halls working together when necessary. “Every station has a pumper and each has a rescue unit to provide critical services on the highways,” stated Milliken. “Some stations have tanker trucks and brush trucks while others don’t. The beauty of the system we’ve been developing over the past year and a half is what happens, in say Andrew, will have an impact in the Lamont or Mundare district so we’ve developed regulations to deal with this.” He said when a fire call comes in now automatically without any thought two fire districts respond to the call. “One may be stood down before they reach the scene,”said Milliken. “But two initially respond so we have
Smoke pours from a house near Mundare, Oct. 13. Mundare Fire and Rescue responded to the fire after a call from the homeowner. Damage was limited to the basement, but smoke damage was throughout the house. the backup that we may need. “It’s truly a team effort because no one hall is going to the fire scene.” Milliken further explained that this decision was made within the departments and was not part of the new fire agreement. “It’s used primarily for larger calls such as structure fires,” he added. “If we have a feeling we may need more than one district to respond to an incident then we’ll make that call. That process has been in place for about a year.” He said that equipment will be constantly upgraded over the years of the agreement. “We’ve been working over the past year to develop a fleet replacement plan. While nothing in the agreement
speaks directly to equipment replacement we do have a core level of service we’ve committed to and we’re currently able to meet that with our current equipment.” He said the department is always looking to keep its fleet upgraded and doing so on a cost-effective basis. Last fall, Lamont County replaced two aging tankers with newer ones and Milliken stated he didn’t know how the department would have managed to get through this spring's fire season without the newer units. “We just don’t know how we would have done it without them,” he said. Another thing he said has been positive, was the switch to the provincial radio system. “We had a really good radio system
before,” said Milliken. “All our fire stations are on the same frequency. With the provincial system we were able to find cost-effective hardware and we’ve been able to eliminate all dead spots from around the county.” He added having one dispatch channel and firefighters having the radios at home he found people are more responsive in getting out on a fire call. “When dispatch lets us know we have a call coming in, people can now hear about it on their mobile units before the actual page comes in.” The fire agreement was finalized in early July, said Milliken. It had previously been approved by each of the urban councils prior to coming to Lamont County for final approval.
