NS Fire Services

For those looking strictly for frequency lists the most up to date sections are those dealing with particular counties or areas. The overall list linked below has proven too hard to keep completely updated but will be useful for areas that do not have their own regional page.

This fire service group of pages does not include coverage of DNR forest fire services that are instead covered under the provincial government pages.

PROVINCIAL PAGES

REGIONAL PAGES

NS Fire Frequency List sorted by location
Similar list, by frequency (not as updated)
NS Fire Grid (provincial IMRS network of VHF repeaters available to local departments)
Typical VFD TMR Channel Lineup (most vfd's have only a very few TMR radios, for liaison)
NS FIRE DISPATCH CENTRES
fire lookout towers

Cape Breton Regional Fire
HRM Fire & Emergency & other fire in HRM
Hants (East & West) (updated March 2010)
Colchester (updated March 2010)
Cumberland (updated March 2010)
Pictou (updated March 2010)
Antigonish
Lunenburg (updated March 2010)
Queens -- coming soon
Annapolis Valley -- Kings, Annapolis, Digby under construction
Guysborough (Guysborough and St Mary's)

Fire Services in Nova Scotia are similar to those elsewhere. There is a mixture of small volunteer departments, composite volunteer/career stations, and the completely paid (career) departments in the cities. For departments utilizing VHF, the standard mutual aid frequency in Nova Scotia is 153.83 MHz.

All fire departments in Nova Scotia (with the exception of Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency Service, Halifax International Airport, military fire services, and possibly Truro Fire Dept) operate on VHF frequencies. In some areas various local fire departments have coordinated communications, at least for paging, and in some cases for operations as well. It is common for paging providers to be contracted. This is quite common in the Annapolis Valley, the South Shore, Hants and Colchester areas. Providers are a mix of for-profit, not-for-profit, and volunteer. "Not-for-profit" includes dispatching services provided by police departments and hospitals.

Superimposed on the individual paging and operations frequencies of the departments, there is also the Nova Scotia Integrated Mobile Radio System which, for fire services, consists of a network of VHF repeaters covering the whole province. It is safe to say that all fire departments using VHF would have the frequency for the local repeater in their radios. These repeaters allowed wide area communications, including capability to call from one end of the province to the other; however this capability is slowly going out of service. The NSIMRS system is most likely to be heard in paging, as several departments are called out through these repeaters, and as well many use them for operations. For information on the NSIMRS fire network ("fire grid") click here. Frequencies of the fire grid are included in the provincial list described below.

Please note that most, if not all, departments also have some capability to operate on the 800 MHz trunk (TMR) for coordination with other departments, and with other emergency service agencies. Generally this capability would consist of one or two portables used by supervisory personnel only or for Medical First Responders in order to be in contact with ambulance dispatch. Some departments use TMR to confirm with their dispatch service that they heard a VHF page.