Ottawa is a growing city with more people calling for a fire truck or ambulance every year. But its fire department has been the same size for 26 years. Deputy Fire Chief Brian Bressner is pulling statistics that show how the department needs more personnel and a third fire station. He says the number of fire and ambulance calls per year has doubled since 1995. Training is frequently interrupted and extra shifts are often called in for overtime to handle them all.
The city’s area is growing. Bressner says it takes about two minutes for an ambulance to get to someone downtown, because it leaves the main fire station nearby. But it takes four minutes on average to get to the far north side in the Walmart area.
Even before talking about a new fire station in another part of the city, Bressner says Ottawa’s police and fire station on W. Lafayette St. is too small. It’s split about half and half between the departments. He says neither department would have enough room if it had the entire building.
Bressner says he’ll be trying to make the case to the City Council and the public to support expansion. He says more in this interview:
Clarification: A reference to a growing population has been removed. The city’s main growth is in geographic area.