Fort Saskatchewan firefighters union says department is understaffed for growing city

A relatively young fire department northeast of Edmonton is feeling the pains of serving a growing community, with its union going so far as to say it was understaffed while fighting two fires over the weekend.

Flames tore through a daycare and a dental office on 99 Avenue on Sunday. It took about 10 firefighters – four of whom had come from Strathcona County's fire service – about two hours to get the blaze under control.

Darrick Graff, president of the Fort Saskatchewan Firefighters Association, said the department had "a very minimal amount of personnel" at the scene, categorizing the size of the response as "below industry standards and recommendations."

The same was true, he told CTV News Edmonton, of the response to a second fire on Sunday in a garage.

According to fire chief Todd Martens, Fort Saskatchewan's policy is to have four staff on shift round the clock, backed by paid on-call and casual members. In total, 25 part-time members are on payroll for the department, which was fully a volunteer service only three years ago.

The current composite model consists of a mutual-aid relationship and dispatch arrangement with Strathcona County.

According to Martens, Fort Saskatchewan's fire department isn't as robust as is recommended by the National Fire Protection Association, but he noted those guidelines aren't legislated.

"I wouldn't agree that they were understaffed," Martens said of the weekend firefighters. "The city has set forward a policy and we currently meet that policy."

Graff believes the problem is a greater demand on resources: In the last decade, Fort Saskatchewan's population has increased by more than 10 per cent from 21,100 in 2012 to 27,600 in 2021.

"We need to remember that we don't just respond to fires. There's medical incidents in the community, we do motor vehicle accidents, water rescue as well. So that's taking away from those responses as well," Graff said.

"At the end of the day, it boils down to our safety when we are at these incidents. We are able to mitigate them but it is taking away from the rest of our response and it is putting our safety in jeopardy as well."

Martens acknowledged the department is new and challenged by its model, which sometimes sees firefighters called in from home.

“Being so new, that’s really what we’re looking at reviewing: What is the right level of service for the city of Fort Saskatchewan?” Martens commented.

“Until we complete those studies and we have a solid document to guide us into the future, it’s hard for us to say whether four is right, seven's right, 10 is right.”

Through work on a fire service master plan, Martens said the city will examine staffing levels, service levels and other specialty programs provided by firefighters.

As for Sunday's larger fire, the department is working with RCMP to investigate it as suspicious. Officials say it could be a case of arson.

With files from CTV Edmonton's Joe Scarpelli and Adam Lachacz