St. John's city council moves towards adding two new fire stations

Coun. Art Puddister says now that city council has met with St. John's Regional Fire Department's chief, they have decided to pursue adding two new fire stations in the capital city.

"I accepted the fact that we could agree in principleto move forward with two new fire stations," Puddister said.

"One in the north east in the Clovelly area and one in the south west of the city in Goulds."

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St. John's is currently fixing up theKenmountStation and will then look to find land for the new fire halls.

Puddister said the motivation behind his push for the new stations was to improve response times to areas of the city.

At the Nov. 21 meeting, City Manager Kevin Breentold council that the fire department is making the NFPA [National Fire Protection Association]standard in the area that the GouldsVolunteer Fire Department services.

But he said in the north east end of St. John's they are falling a little short.

"Our objective is to respondwithin six minutes 90 per cent of the time and currently we are at about 85 per cent,"he said.

"There is room to improve there. We've identified it as a concern and we are working on a plan to increase our fire fighting capacity in that area over the next two to three years."

Puddister feels the response time should be 100 per cent no matter where you live in the city.

"If you are living in St. John's you need 100 per cent coverage 24-7. I am glad to see that we are committed, basically in principle, to have two new stations," said the councillor-at-large.

Puddistersaid the plan is to keep an eye open for possible places to build a fire station in the north east end of the city and also to bulk up the location in the Goulds.

Right now that fire hall is a compositestation, part volunteerand part professional fire fighters.

"At some point in time in the future the GouldsVolunteer Fire Department, basically, will phase out and that part of our city will become another station operated 24-7 by our regional fire department."

St. John's Regional Fire Department is currently responsible for seven stations, including Goulds.