City council formally adopted the High Intensity Residential Fires response time guidelines for Red Deer Emergency Services on Monday.
Known as HIRF, the standard calls for a total response time of 10 minutes 90 per cent of the time from the time the call is handled by dispatch to getting water on the fire.
Red Deer Emergency Services has been following the HIRF guideline since 2014 to comply with the Alberta Building Code, and has been meeting the response time guideline since then.
The previous response guideline for fire calls, which dates back to 2002, specified only travel time. First responding vehicle was to arrive on scene within four minutes, 90 per cent of the time; a second vehicle within six minutes 75 per cent of the time; and the third within 8 minutes 75 per cent of the time.
“Under the previous standard, our total response time was around 11 minutes,” said Brian Makey, Emergency Services manager, in a press release.
“With the introduction of the HIRF standards, which also triggered the relocation of Stations 3 and 4, we are consistently achieving a response time of 10 minutes.”