Fire calls in the tri-community have doubled in the last seven years. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)
emergency services

Increasing staffing level at fire department discussed by town council

Jun 26, 2025 | 12:15 PM

A concerned citizen is asking town council to consider increasing the size of the La Ronge Regional Fire Department.

In a letter sent to council, resident Jared Richard wrote it might be time to look at establishing a full-time fire department in the tri-communities. He explained the number of calls has been steadily increasing and that other places such as Weyburn have fewer calls, but more firefighters on staff.

For instance, he noted Weyburn has a fire chief, deputy chief, four full-time firefighters and 32 paid on-call firefighters. Weyburn has a population of 11,000, while the tri-communities sit around 6,000.

“Granted we do have additional seasonal firefighters, which shows we are already moving in that direction,” Richards wrote.

“So given that, I think it is more than reasonable to approach the town and tri-communities with a request to invest in our fire department. Our members have been doing an exceptional job over the years and have worked tirelessly to keep our communities safe. I think it is time we show our appreciation to them by expanding their resources.”

The La Ronge Regional Fire Department currently employs a fire chief, deputy chief, and two seasonal firefighters who come to La Ronge as part of an experience opportunity. They are complimented by 30 on-call firefighters.

Data from the department shows calls have doubled in the last seven years from 150 in 2017 to 301 in 2024. Fire Chief Keaton Cloud said those numbers have gone up because of more fires being set intentionally, a higher crime rate and the fact more residents are installing alarm systems that sometimes get triggered.

When considering increasing fire services, La Ronge Chief Administrative Officer Lyle Hannan told council it is important to consider several factors.

“It would be a deep dive in terms of the impact of the call volumes, what type of calls, what’s the trend?” he said.

“We’d want to look at from a service level perspective is there something that is falling by the wayside by these volumes? Like, is there a concern by council and what would that concern be? If we weren’t getting a fast enough response time or we weren’t getting enough people responding to calls, or if it was taking away from public education activities or fire inspections or other things. Is it leading to turnover with staff or too much overtime? Those are the kind of things we would want to dive into if we were to look at this.”

Council members seemed to agree the current service level at the fire department is satisfactory. Coun. Robert Pacey said hiring four more staff would lead to a large increase in funding.

“It would be something to budget for later down the road, and I know with the two seasonal firefighters, that’s a nice start for the compliment,” he remarked.

“We have a very well-trained fire department. I’m very confident in the firefighters we have on staff.”

Coun. Melissa McNeil agreed.

“I think for a community our size, I know it’s comparison to Weyburn, but they have a tax base five times us, so it is a little bit different to compare,” she said.

“I do think that we have some excellent people with our fire department and I’ve just been very impressed so far. If there is a need or something comes up, I would definitely want to hear it.”

derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com

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