Grand Forks Fire Rescue is one of five Fire Halls in the Grand Forks Regional Fire District. Grand Forks Fire Rescue is referred as Station 4.
Grand Forks Fire/Rescue responded to just shy of 300 calls in 2012.
There were a total of 298 calls: 83 were Medical/First Responder, 41 were Motor Vehicle Incidents, and 174 were "Fire" calls (which also includes things like the July wind storm, and gas leaks/hazardous materials calls).
The largest events were March 7th (Grand Forks and Winnipeg Hotel Fires) with 31 members responding (291 man-hours), and the July 20th wind storm (26 seperate calls in a three-hour period, with 27 members and two reserves responding, 127 man-hours). The swiftwater team responded to 5 river calls this year, more than average.
Including all callouts and training, the members of GFFR once again exceeded 10,000 hours of volunteer time spent providing protective services to the community.
To keep these local heroes safe, in 2012 it was proposed that the fire department replace their 20 year old ladder truck. As of 2013 the department was still shopping and town council had not yet come forth with official approval for the $1,000,000 purchase. Today, in 2017, we still haven't heard that the department has gotten their new ladder truck. The most recent news we could find was this 2013 article, the beginning of which is reprinted below.
New ladder truck for
Grand Forks Fire Rescue
could lower insurance rates
by Karl Yu - Grand Forks Gazette
posted Jul 3, 2013 at 1:00 PM
Grand Forks Fire Rescue continues the process to purchase a new ladder truck, which will tackle modern firefighting and hopefully lower insurance for residents.
A decision is pending final approval from the city and community – Grand Forks Fire Chief Dale Heriot said the volunteer department has looked at several types of trucks and estimates that it could cost upwards of $1 million.
With the current ladder truck being 20 years old, it no longer meets criteria for Fire Underwriters Survey of Canada insurance standards (the company that assesses the ability of communities to protect themselves from fire and provides information to insurance companies).
Furthermore, firefighting in the Grand Forks area has changed with taller structures and with such developments as Silver Kettle Village, seniors with limited mobility will need extra help being evacuated.
The new fire truck will have to meet requirements not only in the modern day but for the next 20 years as well.
“What we’re looking for this time is a platform ladder truck,” Heriot explained. “Twenty years ago when we bought our original ladder truck, we only fought fire with it and that was it. Now we do high-angle rescue, low-angle rescue, confined space rescue, swift water rescue and many other rescue situations and a platform ladder truck is much easier suited for us – safer for us and way more efficient for rescuing public.”
Grand Forks Fire Rescue also deals with hazardous material response.
From the Grand Forks Gazette