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Show Ft Haunts BtfL Bench By GARY BLODGETT BOUNTIFUL - Residents of Bountiful's northeast bench are mighty worried about fire protection, or lack of it. and came to City Council meeting to view their opinions'. RESIDENTS OF the area who spoke said they were especially concerned about the long fire response time from the Bountiful's main station sta-tion on 200 South in downtown Bountiful to areas east of Davis Boulevard and south of 1800 South. They told the council, and it was confirmed by Fire Chief Jerry Lemon, that the response re-sponse time to the Cave Hollow Hol-low and Chelsea Cove area of the city is about nine minutes for the first truck (mini-pumper) (mini-pumper) and an additional three minutes for the large pumper truck. "THAT'S MUCH too long of a response time, especially during the summer when a fire could spread so rapidly," said Bob Olsen, spokesperson for the group. "We could all be wiped out by the time the first truck arrived." It was then suggested that the city attempt to man the substation at 1800 South and Bountiful Boulevard around the clock, which would reduce the response time for a fire in that area to less than three minutes. mi-nutes. ANOTHER RESIDENT suggested sug-gested that an alternative to the problem might be to use the substation (Station No. 2) as the main station because the majority of the fire runs would then be downhill, and much faster response time for the trucks, than winding the big trucks uphill. But the fire chief and council pointed out that there would be several problems with converting con-verting Fire Station No. 2 into a main station. PRIMARILY, THE main station is needed to protect the city's commercial district as well as the residential area, it was explained. Mayor Barlow, who also serves as chairman of the public pub-lic safety committee, noted that it would require approximately approxi-mately $20,000 per man to add personnel to the No. 2 Station, the minimum number that would be needed to upgrade the personnel status of that station. sta-tion. He said the present fire dept., for both stations, is comprised of nine full time and about 35 part-time firemen. OF THIS number, about one-half of the part-time firemen fire-men live and work in Bountiful Bounti-ful and several are city em ployees. "We have an excellent department, de-partment, one of the finest in the slate, and the city has an excellent fire rating (Rating No. 5 since 1978)." said Mayor Barlow. "And we have been upgrading the department each year." CITY MANAGER Tom Hardy explained that there are eight categories for fire ratings, rat-ings, and that not everything is based on the proximity of a fire station. He said ratings are based on deficiencies in the entire en-tire fire protection system, including in-cluding manpower, water supply, hydrants, number and size of trucks, etc. Also, he said, there is no 'break" in the residential fire rating from R-6 which Bountiful Bounti-ful previously had and an R-3 rating. Thus, the city's fire rating rat-ing for insurance purposes did not decrease with the recent fire rating reduction due primarily pri-marily to the addition of Fire Station No. 2. "HOWEVER, THE fire rating rat-ing for commercial structures varies considerably with the location of the mam fire station and it is essential that a main station be maintained near the commercial district." the city manager explained. The council said it was very concerned about the dangers of fire in the foothills of Bountiful, Boun-tiful, and will cooperate with the residents to see what can be worked out. THUS, THE fire chief, city manager, mayor and selected residents of the Cave Hollow subdivision are to meet and discuss further the problems and possible solutions. Recommendations Re-commendations from this group will be reviewed by the city's public safety committee before being presented to the city council withm ibx next few weeks. |