Prince George could eventually become home to a new fire training site.
City council has approved including a one-time enhancement of $75,000 to its 2024 budget deliberations to conduct the second phase of the Prince George Fire Training Site Feasibility Study.
In 2022, Prince George Fire Rescue Services (PGFRS) completed a Fire & Rescue Strategic Plan Update, which identified several service and infrastructures recommendations.
These included the need for additional staff at Hall 2, the provision of an appropriate local training site, and a fifth staffed fire hall in the industrial area in the south-east portion of the city.
In response to the key issues identified, consultants were contracted to complete a feasibility study surrounding the development of a new fire training site.
The resulting report said there is a need for renewed fire training space because the existing infrastructure is extremely limited, in poor physical condition, and fragmented across the city.
PGFRS currently travels to other municipalities in B.C. to meet annual training requirements and the travel is expensive and has a significant negative impact on city fire operations.
Fire training needs
To meet the current and future training needs, a 3.1 acre site is required for indoor and outdoor training space.
The proposed site would be composed of three main components: a training facility warehouse which would provide space for year-round practical and classroom training; a burn tower to support live fire training activities; and outdoor practical training areas.
The outdoor practical training areas would support a wide range of activities requiring outdoor space from two main areas: a vehicle extrication area and multipurpose training pad. The grounds would also need to include a basic road network to simulate city streets to allow apparatus to approach the burn tower and prop areas in a realistic fashion.
Two site locations have been proposed for the development of a fire training site. The first one is land behind Fire Hall No. 3 in College Heights and the second is the Prince George Airport Training Site.
PGFRS said the site behind Fire Hall No. 3 is more ideally situated because it would allow staff to receive training while on-shift, which would decrease operational costs associated with training.
The site at the airport would also require the development of a partnership and operating agreement between the city and the Prince George Airport Authority.
However, the airport site is more advantageous for a regional training site development because it is one of two locations in Canada that supports hydrocarbon burning which produces significant smoke.
The second phase of the study will develop options for city council to consider in the 2025 budget, leading up to building the new fire training centre.
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