By Charles Lefebvre

New fire station completed

Sep 7, 2018 | 4:48 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — After almost one year of construction, Medicine Hat firefighters have moved into their new home.

The new Fire Station #1, located at the corner of Altawana Drive and Parkview Drive, is now finished, with firefighters moving their equipment into the new building on Thursday.

“We came over in one big convoy, brought all of our trucks over at once, and we started responding right from there at that time,” said Captain Jeff Kozakewich with the fire service.

The station is located across the South Saskatchewan River, which will help improve response times for neighbourhoods north of the river.

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“To preserve that six minute response time that we’re trying to get to 90 per cent of the time, this will help us into Ranchlands, Box Springs Area, Northeast, Northwest Crescent Heights,” said Koazkewich. “This will get us that much closer to it.”

The new station replaces the previous station on Maple Avenue, which Kozakewich says is a big improvement.

“The station on Maple Avenue was a fantastic building, but it was built in the early ‘70s,” he said. “The trucks then were smaller, now the trucks are getting a little bit bigger, higher, and we just started to outgrow that (building).

“It was hard to purchase apparatus that we could fit in that building, we’d have to place them in other buildings. This one has the room for us now, with modern fire apparatuses.”

An official grand opening is expected to take place next month.