The new chief of Kamloops Fire Rescue is set to launch a 10-year strategic plan early next year to determine what the department will need to service the city in the future.

Chief Ken Uzeloc says in the new year, he intends to launch a full-scale review of their operations and what will be needed over the next decade.

“The types of calls the fire department is responding to these days, the types of risk that exist, between industry demographics, age of the population.”

He says the exercise is to identify the goals they want to reach as a fire department, to properly serve the people of Kamloops.

“The performance measures are going to track whether we are making a difference for citizens or not.”

Uzeloc says this review will also look at operational requirements, such as new equipment to fight fires in the growing number of high-rise buildings and the location of any new halls.

“The types of buildings currently here and the ones being built pose a different challenge for firefighting. For example, the tall buildings going up downtown are going to be high enough that our current apparatus would not be able to pump water to those upper levels if there is a problem with the buildings pump system.”

This comes as KFR plans to ask the city for 10 new firefighters in the forthcoming budget to bolster its operations out of its hall in Westsyde.