Saskatoon fire chief says more staff, new fire hall needed to serve growing areas

SASKATOON — The Saskatoon Fire Department (SFD) says it is struggling to meet benchmarks set for response times, and more resources will be needed in the future if it is going to meet service level goals.

A report from the fire department tabled at a city committee meeting on Monday says parts of the west side of Saskatoon are sometimes seeing lagging response times from the fire department.

It says the goal of the SFD is to meet a standard of having a first fire engine arriving at a scene within four minutes, 90 per cent of the time. But right now, the report says the fire department is only meeting that goal 64 percent of the time.

Chief Morgan Hackle says district two, which encompasses several west side neighbourhoods, is one of the busier areas of the city. It's also growing with new neighbourhoods like Hampton Village and Kensington

Chief Hackl says budget requests will be coming for more resources, staff and eventually a new fire hall.

He says a budget request will be coming this fall for five more firefighters and the fire department will be working with city administration on a funding plan for a new fire hall in the future.

While there is no official timeline set and no specific location mentioned, Hackl hopes to have a budget request for a new fire hall submitted for the budget cycle starting in 2023.

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