Every minute and every second counts when it comes to responding to a fire.  However, sometimes they're hold ups and snags that can prevent firefighters from getting to a scene quickly.

Shreveport resident Joe Caldwell knows this all to well.  Last month, Caldwell's home off 5th Street was destroyed by a blaze that took place on Christmas night.  Caldwell and his family say it took the Shreveport Fire Department at least 20 minutes to get water to put out the fire.  

""They say they couldn't get water, if they had water, if they could have got some water, my house wouldn't have been like this," said Caldwell.

The incident brings up the question of what is the average response time for the Shreveport Fire Department?

"The average response time is a little less than 5 minutes over the past 4 years," said Chief of Safety Scott Wolverton.

That time is well below the standard set by the National Fire Protection Association, which is eight minutes.

The department says they are follow a five step process when responding to a scene.

For a first alarm response, they first have the call go out over a speaker system.  The same call will also be sent out over a pager, which every firefighter is equipped with. The printer system at the selected station will make a log of the call.  Lastly, the call will also go out over a portable radio and mobile data computer, which all fire crews have in their trucks.

Wolverton says this repetitive system helps strengthen their response time.

"If a fire comes in at a certain location and if one of our trucks is out of the station or going down the road and their close to that call, they're automatically going to send that closest truck to that fire and that gets them their immediately," said Wolverton.

Improvements have also been discussed to further improve the system.

The Shreveport City Council passed a bond proposal in 2011, which set aside funds to build new fire stations, as well as, combine several others.

Preliminary discussions have targeted combining station 14, off of Greenwood Road and station 8, off Velva Road near the fairgrounds.  Both of which, fall in District G Councilman Sam Jenkins district.

"Combining those two stations in what we call a super station, the idea is to locate that station somewhere near Independence Stadium," said Jenkins.

While discussions of the moves are in the beginning phase, Jenkins says the council won't move forward with making a decision until they are absolutely sure that it will be beneficial to the fire department, as well as the community.

"Bottom line on it is wherever the location we want to make sure they can respond in a timely fashion to any resident or business that need them to come out," said Jenkins.

We asked the Shreveport Fire Department to comment on the exact response time and issues that might have come up in dealing with the 5th Street fire.  They said since it is currently under investigation, that they would not comment at this time.