Prince Albert firefighters push for new fire halls following record-breaking number of calls

WATCH: Firefighters in Prince Albert are complaining their work load has been steadily increasing, but staffing levels haven't kept up.

The Prince Albert Firefighters Association wants additional fire halls.

The association says this is the first year in the department’s history it’s responded to more than 2000 calls.

“We do a lot of outside fires,” said association president Ben Hunter. “We do a lot of dumpster fires. It’s just all our work is significantly increased.”

Hunter says the increase in calls is partially due to the city expanding, but adds the fire department has also received an influx of calls relating to homelessness.

The Prince Albert Firefighters Association says the National Fire Protection Association’s response time guidelines indicate there should be three fire halls in the city instead of one.

“Some areas of the city it takes eight, nine, ten minutes to get to,” said Hunter.

“A lot can happen in that time, a lot of bad things. We never want to see that happen.”

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A fire facility reserve for additional halls was established in 2023. Two locations were chosen - one on the east side of the city and one on the west. Three additional firefighters were added that year.

The department says the lone fire hall is operating with enough firefighters for two halls, but additional halls are needed to lower response times.

“By building additional fire stations you reduce that drive time so that we have quicker responses,” explained Deputy Fire Chief Alex Paul.

“Once a third station is built, that’s when we’d actually increase our manpower, because in our current station, we staff two engines.”

The city says due to financial constraints the projects won’t be moving forward for a few years.

“If we can build a $500,000 contribution every year, that’s still a pretty long-term vision,” said Mayor Bill Powalinsky.

The city says there are other projects that need to be addressed immediately, such as the planned sewer system upgrade.

There’s no projected timeline for the construction of a new fire hall.