The Okotoks Fire Department is celebrating the approval to make four new hires.

It was announced at Monday's Town Council meeting the department received approval for the hires in the budget.

The hires will be effective in March which will mean the department will be able to open up the fire station on the south side. Currently the south station is ran by community fire fighters.

Ken Thevenot, Okotoks Fire Chief, says the department is currently staffed with 16 members.

"We run four shifts with four members on each shift out of the north station, so what we would do around March, if all pieces of the puzzle fall into place, we would look at doing a three and two split of our crews. So we'd have four crews of five but we'd look at doing a three and two split and we'd have two crews on the south side and three on the north side."

According to Thevenot, about 70% of their calls are in Okotoks and 30% are outside of town. Of the calls they respond to in town, he says they receive more calls on the north side.

He explains what the hiring process will look like.

"We would look at the four positions and look at the qualified staff that have applied and screen them that way... and determine the best fits for our service and how we move forward in the next number of years."

Along with helping to better serve Okotoks growing population, it will also allow the department to better handle incidents and reduce response times on the south side through the staffing of the south station.

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