The time has come for the Lacombe Fire Department to upgrade their rescue boat.

Their current boat was purchased at least a decade ago by the Lacombe Firefighters Association.

Association President Brian Vossen explains how the fire department utilizes the rescue boat.

“We do get called if there are any water rescues on Gull Lake; we are the department that gets dispatched because we have the boat.  We do have an ice rescue team that also uses the boat when they practice and stuff.  We don’t do swift water, that’s not in our scope of practice, but standing water so Gull Lake, any of the ponds and sloughs around town, we do the lakes inside Lacombe, like Cranna Lake for example we had a rescue there where we actually rescued a dog that was in the lake”.

The department also used their current rescue boat to assist in rescue operations during the High River floods in 2013.

Vossen says it’s just an aging tool that’s not in prime condition.

“the boat and motor that we currently have, we have patched, it’s just like an inflatable boat, it’s basically a dingy with a motor that we put on the back of it, and it has had some trouble keeping air in it, and it’s time to upgrade, time to renew that resource”.

The Firefighters Association approached City Council this week for permission to sell the boat, which was originally an asset of the Association, donated to the municipality.

It's anticipated they could see about $2,000 back out of the boat, Vossen explains how they could use those funds.

“I know that one of the very popular ideas that the funds from the sale, not the boat or motor itself, but the funds from the sale of it would go to support our Paraguay Project which is where we take retired fire apparatus and other fire equipment and we take them down to communities in need down in Paraguay because the fire service there, they do not have close to the means of firefighting that we do here in Canada certainly”.

The department is looking to replace the boat with something better able to handle waves if they’re called to respond to a body of water in higher winds.