South, Central fire stations pretty much in the right place, study concludes

Craig Bakay | Feb 02, 2022

“Generally speaking, stations are well located,” Graham Holland of Operational Research in Health Ltd (ORH) told a joint meeting of South and Central Frontenac Township Councils hosted by Central Jan. 25.

Holland was making a presentation for the Joint Station and Fleet Study the two municipalities contracted with ORH for.

The purpose of the study was to review the current fire station locations and resources in both townships.

“The current coverage (stations) is four in Central Frontenac (and one sub-station, Piccadilly) and eight in South Frontenac or 12 in combination,” he said. “The modelling has shown that the distribution of stations is generally well-aligned to covering residential properties and roads, however some opportunities for improvement could be achieved when station rebuilds are required.

“Although no immediate efficiencies were identified in terms of shared locations, these should be considered as the population grows in future years.”

Holland said that with two exceptions the current estate for SFFR needs significant upgrades or total rebuilds, so it is necessary to evaluate potential options for relocating and/or rationalizing stations in the area.

“This should be assessed for two future scenarios,” he said. “SFFR and CFFR continue to operate as independent fire services or there is on joint fire service across the two townships.”

ORH sought to analyze historical incident demand; appraise current and optimal locations for all fire stations; evaluate options for potential station combinations and map travel time, road distance and coverage statistics.

For comparison purposes, during the six-year data sample based on the home station of the first responding unit analyzed, South Frontenac had 2,339 total incidents or 7.69 per week and Central had 657 or 2.16 per week.

The busiest location in Central is Arden with 264 or 0.87 followed by Sharbot Lake at 236 or 0.78.

In South Frontenac, Sydenham is the busiest with 424 total incidents or 1.39 average weekly followed by Sunbury/Battersea at 403 or 1.32 average weekly.

While there were no amalgamations actually proposed, several were considered such as combining Arden and Mountain Grove in Central Frontenac (“there would be a slight degradation of coverage area”).

In South Frontenac, combining Verona, Hartington and Sydenham into two stations (closing Hartington) but with little benefits. One station would be a significant detriment,” the report said.

As far as combining stations across townships, a Parham-Bradshaw merger “might be worthy of future consideration but there is nothing to suggest major gains.”

However, the study did say that if there were plans to upgrade or replace stations, Arden could benefit by being moved closer to Hwy 7 and Latimer closer to Inverary.

“Did you consider where volunteers reside and their ability to respond?” said Central Coun. Bill MacDonald.

“No, but that would be a factor to consider as part of additional analysis,” said Holland.

“Were there any site inspections or was this purely a math exercise?” said South Coun. Alan Revill.

“There were no site inspections,” Holland said.

“I guess the possibility of working together only really exists in Bradshaw,” said South Major Ron Vandewal. “I guess we could put 3 (Verona), 4 (Hartington) and 5 (Sydenham) together but then we’d have people travelling all over the place.”

Mutual aide still happens but it’s not automatic any more to reduce costs, Vandewal said.

“The chief officer requests it if it’s necessary,” he said. “Latimer could be moved if we decide to rebuild it but I was a little surprised that Piccadilly didn’t come up so I guess we don’t really need it.”

Central Mayor Frances Smith said that the Piccadilly facility really isn’t a substation any more, just a garage beside the hall with an emergency vehicle parked there.

“I think what is says to us is that we’ve done a pretty good job locating our stations,” Smith said. “But perhaps we could be a little better in the future.”