Halifax County (NS) Regional Fire and Emergency

After the creation of the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) in 1996, all fire services within Halifax County came under one department, Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency (HRFE).

The HRFE consists of two response areas, core and rural:

• Core stations are those in the former cities of Halifax and Dartmouth, Town of Bedford and Sackville. These stations are staffed by full crews, 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
• Rural stations are those in the former Halifax County. Some stations in more densly populated areas have a mixture of career firefighters during the day Monday to Friday, and volunteer firefighters covering the rest of the time. Stations in more rural areas are covered entirely by volunteers.

Core Stations

Note, station 1 is actually the headquarters at Alderney Landing in Dartmouth, not an actual working station.

Click here for a Google Map of all HRFE stations

Stn No.	Station Name	Area covered	Apparatus
2	University Avenue	Downtown Halifax	Engine 2
3	West Street	Downtown Halifax	Engine 3 Aerial 1
4	Lady Hammond Road	North-end Halifax	Engine 4
5	Bayers Road	West-end Halifax	Quint 5 Decon 1
6	Herring Cove Road	Spryfield	Engine 6
7	Knightsridge Drive	Fairview/Clayton Park	Quint 7
8	Convoy Run	Bedford	Engine 8 Tactical 2
9	Metropolitan Boulevard	Lower Sackville	Engine 9 Engine 9-A
10	Sackville Drive	Middle Sackville	Engine 10 Engine 10-A
11	Patton Road	Upper Sackville	Engine 11 Tanker 11
12	Highfield Park	North-end Dartmouth	Quint 12 Tactical 1
13	King Street	Downtown Dartmouth	Quint 13 Boat 1
14	Second Street	Westphal	Engine 14
15	Pleasant Street	Woodside	Engine 15
16	Caldwell Road	Eastern Passage	Engine 16
17	Cole Harbour Road	Cole Harbour	Engine 17 Engine 17-A Tanker 17
18	Hwy #7	Westphal	Engine 18 Engine 18-A

Rural Stations

The rural area stations are further devided into 5 emergency response zones: 1, 2, 3, 4 and the western region.

Click here for a Google Map of all HRFE stations

Zone 1

Stn No.	Area covered	Apparatus	Staffing
19	Lawrencetown	Engine 19 Tanker 19 Rescue 19	Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
20	Lawrencetown	Engine 20 Tanker 20 Rescue 20	Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
21	Lake Echo	Engine 21 Tanker 21 Rescue 21 Tactical 21	Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
22	North Preston	Engine 22	Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
23	Chezzetcook	Engine 23 Tanker 23 Rescue 23	Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
24	Musquodoboit Harbour	Engine 24 Tanker 24 Rescue 24	Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
25	Ostrea Lake	Engine 25 Tanker 25 Rescue 25	Volunteer only
26	Oyster Pond	Engine 26 Tanker 26	Volunteer only
27	Owl's Head (closed)

Zone 2

Stn No.	Area covered	Apparatus	Staffing
28	Sheet Harbour		Volunteer only
29	Moser River		Volunteer only
30	Tangier		Volunteer only
31	East Ship Harbour		Volunteer only
32	Mooseland		Volunteer only
33	Three Harbours		Volunteer only
34	Mushaboom		Volunteer only

Zone 3

Stn No.	Area covered	Apparatus	Staffing
35	Cooks Brook		Volunteer only
36	Meagher's Grant		Volunteer only
37	Elderbank		Volunteer only
38	Middle Musquodoboit		Volunteer only
39	Upper Musquodoboit		Volunteer only
40	Dutch Settlement		Volunteer only

Zone 4

Stn No.	Area covered	Apparatus	Staffing
41	Waverley	Engine 41 Aerial 41	Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
42	Wellington - Fletcher's Lake		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
43	Grand Lake - Oakfield		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
45	Lakeview/Fall River/Windsor Junction		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
46	Lakeview (closed)
47	Goffs		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
48	Beaver Bank - Kinsac		Volunteer only
49	North Beaver Bank (closed - merged with 48)

Western Region

Stn No.	Area covered	Apparatus	Staffing
50	Hammonds Plains		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
51	Upper Hammonds Plains		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
52	Prospect Bay Road		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
53	Terrence Bay		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
54	Shad Bay		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
55	Seabright		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
56	Black Point		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
57	Head of St. Margarets Bay (closed - replaced by 65)
58	Lakeside		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
59	Bay Road/Lewis Lake (closed - replaced by 65)
60	Herring Cove		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
61	Ketch Harbour		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
62	Harrietsfield		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
63	Sambro		Staffed during the day Volunteer the rest of the time
65	Tantallon

Communications

HRFE is dispatched from the HRM Integrated Emergency Services dispatch centre. A Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system allows the dispatchers to quickly determine the correct stations and apparatus to page out for a call. The initial page out is done on VHF using Motorola two-tone sequential paging on the following frequencies:

Frequency	Input	License	Type	Tone	Alpha Tag	Description	Mode	Tag
151.40000		VAC778	B	CSQ	HRFE Paging	Paging: Sackville site (for Halifax core stations)	FM	Fire Dispatch
152.06000		XJG955	B	CSQ	HRFE Paging	Paging: Hammonds Plains and Oyster Pond sites	FM	Fire Dispatch
152.18000		CIG518	B	CSQ	HRFE Paging	Paging: Preston site (for Dartmouth core stations)	FM	Fire Dispatch
153.89000		XJH453	B	CSQ	HRFE Paging	Paging: Queensland and Preston sites	FM	Fire Dispatch
154.13000		XJN917	B	CSQ	HRFE Paging	Paging: Chaswood and Tangier sites	FM	Fire Dispatch
154.17500		XJI550	B	CSQ	HRFE Paging	Paging: Ecum Secum site	FM	Fire Dispatch
154.28000		VCC718	B	CSQ	HRFE Paging	Paging: Prospect, Sheet Harbour and Shubenacadie sites	FM	Fire Dispatch
154.41500		XJG928	B	CSQ	HRFE Paging	Paging: Middle Sackville site	FM	Fire Dispatch
151.50500		XJF657	B	CSQ	HRFE Paging	Paging: Musquodoboit Harbour site	FM	Fire Dispatch
866.61250	821.61250	VCC718	RM		HRFE Backup Rptr	Prospect, Shubenacadie and Tangier backup repeaters	FM	Fire-Tac
867.11250	822.11250	XJK412	RM		HRFE Backup Rptr	Tantallon and Chaplin backup repeaters	FM	Fire-Tac
867.61250	822.61250	VAC778	RM		HRFE Backup Rptr	Sackville and Marinette backup repeaters	FM	Fire-Tac
868.11250	823.11250	XJH453	RM		HRFE Backup Rptr	Preston, Ecum Secum and Chaswood backup repeaters	FM	Fire-Tac
866.47500	821.47500	CIG518	RM		HRFE Backup Rptr	Preston backup repeater	FM	Fire-Tac
868.61250	823.61250	XJN916	RM		HRFE Backup Rptr	Queensland and Musquodoboit Harbour backup repeaters	FM	Fire-Tac
867.97500	822.97500		RM		HRFE VR	Vehicle repeater	FM	Fire-Tac
867.98750	822.98750		RM		HRFE VR	Vehicle repeater	FM	Fire-Tac
868.46250	823.46250		RM		HRFE VR Ops 2	Vehicle repeater for ops 2 talkgroup	FM	Fire-Tac
868.47500	823.47500		RM		HRFE VR Ops 3	Vehicle repeater for ops 3 talkgroup	FM	Fire-Tac
868.48750	823.48750		RM		HRFE VR	Vehicle repeater	FM	Fire-Tac
868.96250	823.96250		RM		HRFE VR	Vehicle repeater	FM	Fire-Tac
868.97500	823.97500		RM		HRFE VR	Vehicle repeater	FM	Fire-Tac
868.98750	823.98750		RM		HRFE VR	Vehicle repeater	FM	Fire-Tac
155.40000		CIG518	B	CSQ	HRFE Paging	Paging: Halifax site (for stations 4 and 13 volunteers)	FM	Fire Dispatch
150.18500		VAC780	B	CSQ	HRFE Paging	Paging: Harrietsfield site	FM	Fire Dispatch

All stations have a pager/toner, and volunteers carry pagers on them. Communication between dispatch and the responding apparatus is done on the Trunked Mobile Radio System (TMRS) using the following talkgroups:

Description

Talkgroups are divided up between core and rural areas. Each area has a dispatch talkgroup and six operations talkgroups numbered 2-7. For example, Dispatch-C would be the core dispatch talkgroup, and Ops 4-R would be the rural operations talkgroup #4.

For additional information on the TMRS, please see the Aliant Trunked Mobile Radio System (TMRS) wiki article.

For additional frequencies used by HRFE, please see the Halifax County database page.