With the Drumheller Fire Department receiving over a call a day in 2023, there has also been an increase in false alarms.
East Coulee, Rosedale and Drumheller Departments had a total of 378 calls last year, up from the 198 calls in 2021. About half of these calls have been false alarms, and according to Drumheller’s Fire Chief, Derian Rosario, this is a serious issue.
“There’s a multitude of reasons. Some of these are due to commercial structures that have issues with their systems. Not all of them are habitual. Steam from the shower, or cooking, or a couple have been from AirBnb’s where people weren’t shown how to use the alarm systems properly,” he said, “There have been installers who haven’t been bothered to show customers how to properly use their systems. The installers could do a little bit of a better job and be more diligent, instead of taking the easiest path.”
Chief Rosario also explains that the best time of the year to check the batteries in your home’s smoke detectors is with Daylight Savings.
Homeowners can do things to lower the risks of setting off false alarms. Such as, if cooking in the kitchen, turn on the exhaust fan. If in the bathroom showering, turn on the fan or open a window to get the steam out.
“If we can start mitigating some of the reasons why we (the Drumheller Fire Department) go out, that would be great. There’s a definite expense to that everytime. We spend about $600-$800 everytime we get an alarm call to go out in wages and use of trucks,” says Rosario, “This cost is paid by our taxpayers.”
A full roster of 43 firefighters in all three stations in East Coulee, Rosedale and Drumheller, has an average of 12 firefighters attending per call, is enough to populate the engine in a rescue. If there’s a structure fire, there will be more to respond. These team members also carry and are trained in Naloxone, a lifesaving intramuscular injection that can reverse an opioid injection. They have administered it a few times in 2023, all of which were successful.

The Star Mine Suspension Bridge, that crosses the Red Deer River in Rosedale, has been closed to the public since May 2020. An inspection of the bridge revealed that the support on the North-East end was in very poor condition, making it unsafe for use.
“Up until 2023, if you walked across the bridge and stepped onto soil, it used to be an old railway right-of-way, which was never supposed to be sold to private land. The landowner wanted an agreement to make permanent access for us to have it. We ended up buying the land,’’ explains Drumheller’s Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Darryl Drohomerski, “We did an inspection, incidentally during Covid, but because of flood-mitigation, of all the bridge structures in the valley. The Suspension Bridge is held up by four posts, one of which was rotted. This deemed it unsafe for visitors.”
In June of last year, the Town of Drumheller received the land and the work started in November. “Now that the work is complete, it will be open this January,” says CAO Drohomerski.
The total cost of repairs was $383,000. That included the acquisition of the land needed, plus engineering and construction. $200,000 of these costs came from the province, as the province actually owns the bridge but the town is responsible for the care and upkeep of it.
“I think from our standpoint,” says CAO Drohomerski, “it’s been a long time coming with the Suspension Bridge, and we appreciate people’s patience on it. I think the challenge that no one realized is this land ownership dilemma that we had to go through so we were happy that it all got resolved. We’re happy to have one more space for the public to go to. It’s been four long years since this bridge has been closed.”
There will be seasonal paid parking for tourists looking to use the bridge, and will be open for pedestrians by February.