The Lacombe Fire Department met with council last night to give an update on their response times from the moment the 911 call is made to when the first vehicle leaves the station.

In 2013, city council adopted a service level agreement which set the target at ten minutes, 90 per cent of the time.

But after analyzing data from the past two years, Fire Chief Ed van Delden said while they do meet that target most of the time, the other ten per cent of the time it takes 11.5 minutes or longer.

van Delden explained as the city grows so does the on-scene time, the additional time it takes to get from the fire hall, which means subdivisions such as Henners and College Heights are currently in the 15 to 16 minute range. 

“Going north and south in Lacombe is a problem with Highway 2A being essentially the only north south major artery in the community,” van Delden said.  

“For most of our responses into that end of the city we’re heading over to Highway 2A following it up to the north end and then travelling west again, so just miles to travel.”

van Delden added traffic due to continued growth is another factor that can add to increased response times for the department.

“We fight the traffic from the time the pager goes off, for our members to get to the station takes time and every four way stop we put in adds a penalty both ways, for our responders coming to the hall and our fire trucks then responding to the scene.”

Mayor Steve Christie said with the continual growth of the city, the possibility of expanding service levels is one they will eventually look at further down the road.

“Is it adding on a few more full time members? I don’t think that the city could afford to go full board, full time,” Christie explained. 

“But could we do half volunteer and half full time or a quarter full time, three quarters volunteer? Absolutely, that’s stuff that we have to look at in the future, right now there’s no provision in our 10 Year Capital Plan.” 

Christie added with the transition to a new training model last year, the city has never seen training and service levels as high as they currently are in quite some time. 

Coming out of last night's meeting, council voted to amend the service level agreement to reflect the current time of 11.5 minutes 90 per cent of the time.