Hants County (Municipalities of West Hants and East Hants)
Fire Departments
Last updated March 28, 2004

Click here for map showing station locations, from Stephen

Hants County is located north of the Halifax area.  It is made up of two municipalities: West Hants and East Hants.   Neither municipality has an integrated fire department but some departments operate cooperatively in terms of dispatch services, and of course all fire departments can operate mutual aid on 153.83 MHz.  This area is served by two repeaters of the obsolescent NS Integrated Radio system.  One of these, on 151.745, is located at Willow Hill, between Ardoise and Newport Station.  Willow Hill is not known to be used on a regular basis by any of the departments shown above.   The other repeater, on 152.03, is at Nuttby Mountain, well off this map to the east but at a significantly high elevation and well received in the eastern parts of the Hants East municipality.   This repeater is used to some extent in Hants East, and is used extensively by departments in Colchester municipality, lying to the east.   Dispatch services vary: some being independent, some under contract from Valley Dispatch or from Colchester Dispatch.   Mount Uniacke is dispatched by HRFES on 154.415 from a transmitter on Lively Road in Middle Sackville, and apparently by a time-delayed remote closer to Mount Uniacke and on the same frequency.   Enfield is also dispatched by HRFES but on 154.28 from the TMR site in Shubenacadie. Please note that departments paged on 153.77 are owner/operators of an integrated repeater/channelisation system beginning in December 2003, with dispatch provided by Colchester Dispatch. Information on this system follows the chart.

New coordinated East Hants system beginning in December 2003 and used by Lantz, Milford, Shubenacadie and Elmsdale.

** The dial-up system is expected to be replaced by a direct radio access system using the repeater input frequency and a yagi antenna at the Truro office of Colchester dispatch.

Apparatus Numbering System (East Hants only)

For most departments it is a unified three digit system, with the first number (or 10 in the case of Kennetcook) indicating the department, as listed below, and the second digit indicating apparatus type (1= Engine, 2 = Tanker, 3 = Rescue or Utility) and the third digit a 1 unless the unit is a second or third of that type of apparatus in that department.

1    Shubenacadie
2    Elmsdale
3    Nine Mile River
4    Lantz
5    Maitland
6    Milford
7    Noel??
8    Rawdon
9    Gore
10    Kennetcook
11    Enfield*

Enfield uses a variation on this system:  Engine 11, Tanker 11, etc

Indian Brook is not part of the system and uses Truck 1, Truck 2, etc.