Halifax considers fast-tracking new firefighters for Upper Tantallon

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Halifax is looking at getting more boots on the ground faster for Wildfire fights in the future it’s going to start training new recruits as of next February and maryan is taking a look at the story for us this morning it’s really interesting we think about the horrible wildfires in Nova Scotia Last

Summer the worst ever obviously this is in response to that and what may be coming I guess this year absolutely yeah specifically in the area of upper tent Talon which is a growing area an are with a growing populations many neighborhoods being built there still but when it comes to the fire response

They’re dealing with the Staffing shortage and so that’s why they’re talking about potentially considering FASTT tracking full-time firefighters there for those who may recall it was in Upper tent Talon last May at the end of May when there was that devastating fire that destroyed more than 150 homes so

The thinking here is that if they use their $92 million budget this year that’s fire officials in Halifax they’ll be able to hire up to 15 new firefighters for for the area of upper Talon or Hammond’s Plains not only to improve the response to fires but also

To take the uh pressure off of the volunteers because currently the situation in Halifax is that career firefighters work regular business hours and volunteers work evenings and weekends so they’re hoping this will help with that as for the actual timeline though many officials there saying this is not happening soon enough

Fire officials saying that because of the massive Staffing shortfall they would have to run two training classes a year just to catch up and so at this Point new recruits wouldn’t be trained until 2025 so one local city councel has spoken out about this hoping that that

Could be bumped up at least before the end of the year I do think that it’s well beyond time that this community which continues to exist in an extreme Wildfire uh uh area as well as the fact that we’re still uh we still have deficits with regards to

Eress now last year Nova Scotia experienced one of its worst Wildfire Seasons with fires burning to 20 5,000 hectares of land uh devastating many communities there destroying hundreds of homes so Halifax will also be looking at its response to these fires it also plans Heather to buy a new fire truck A

Specialized fire truck uh a new sprinkler as well as a pressurized uh fire unit that’ll be the first in Atlantic Canada so those are the other measures they’re taking into account so uh halifa not alone in looking at the reality of the future we think about what happened in Alberta its Worst

Season as well already declaring the start of wildfire season what is Alberta doing yeah it’s dealing with a warmer drier temperatures and that’s why they declared an early Fire season Wildfire season at 10 days before March 1st that’s when it normally happens so they’ve already announced they’re hiring

100 new firefighters to help deal with this uh challenging fire Wildfire season they’re expecting again this season also $ 55 million more in its Wildfire budget and as you mentioned Heather it was pretty devastating last year burning through 10 times more area of land than they’ve seen in the fiveyear average so

They’re trying to prepare for that as well and they have the zombie fires burning still burning bur still from last year so a lot of concern as we look to the summer of 2024 thank you maryan

Halifax is considering training more firefighters for Upper Tantallon to bring in more staff to a growing area that experienced a devastating wildfire last May.

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