Firefighters union at odds with Chief regarding closures of halls, volunteer staffing

HALIFAX – A staff report on the Halifax Regional Fire service will be presented to council on Tuesday, which is not sitting well with the union that represents firefighters.

Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency Chief Doug Trussler is recommending the closure of the Patton Road fire hall, changing staffing levels to three career firefighters at both the Lady Hammond Road Hall and King Street Hall while supplementing with volunteers.

Jim Gates, president of the Halifax Professional Firefighters union, said his concern with the volunteer model is response time.

“The challenges being faced by people that they’re putting in here is, can they get to the station in a timely manner to effect an appropriate response in the areas that they’re covering,” Gates said.

Gates said the city’s mandated response time is five minutes and he believes that number would be closer to 12 minutes if volunteers were used.

Council decided last year to keep all fire halls open after a staff report recommended some close. At that time, Trussler was instructed to come up with a solution to staffing levels.

Gates said Trussler simply hasn’t done that.

Top Stories

Top Stories

Most Watched Today