Fire department adds new main fire hall and suburban stations to its wish list

The Saskatoon Fire Department is flagging some potentially large spending items in the years to come.

The department says it needs to replace its 54-year-old headquarters and maintenance shop on Idylwyld Drive and add up to three new stations over the next decade.

Those needs come on top of a previous pitch for a new regional facility to train firefighters from Saskatoon and the rest of the province.

• Saskatoon Fire Department rekindles pitch for regional firefighting training centre

Andy Kotelmach, the city's deputy fire chief, says a lack of space at Station 1 on Idylwyld Drive S means winter repairs to ladder trucks have to be subcontracted out.

"With the right land appropriation, an adequate maintenance and mechanical shop can be built," a recent report to city councillors said.

The new heradquarters would have to be built at or near the same site in order to maintain the department's stated goal of reaching a fire within four minutes on 90 per cent of calls.

New stations in the Aspen Ridge and Holmwood neighbourhoods, plus a third unspecified site, are also needed, Kotelmach said.

Next steps

The department expects to present its "master" plan to city councillors in the second quarter of 2019.

Its most recent new hall, a replacement, was built on Clarence Avenue near Wilson Crescent and opened earlier this year.

Another replacement hall, planned for the intersection of Preston Avenue and College Drive, could open by 2020.