The O’Keefe Ranch has rounded up increased protection of the more than 100-year-old historic structures on site. But in doing so it may have offended local firefighters.
The ranch has been given a 1988 International pumper truck from Coldstream, which will aid in the event of a fire.
But in its application for the truck, the ranch referred to the response time as being 45 minutes for the fire department.
Ranch general manager Glen Taylor wants to clarify that this includes the delay from the monitoring station and other circumstances.
“Our system is set up with the monitoring alarm station that they call the ranch first to confirm that there is fire as we don’t want to be sending in false alarms, and there are three numbers they would call before they would dispatch the fire department.”
Taylor apologizes to the Armstrong Spallumcheen Fire Department, which may have taken offence to the comment.
“I totally understand the commitment and dedication that they bring to the community and did not want to imply that they were slow to attend. My intent was to emphasize to (Coldstream) council that we are at the other end of the fire protection district with 100 plus year old un-sprinkled buildings surrounded by dry grass lands and that having a truck on site could help in saving a fire spreading into one of those buildings.”