New Fire Hall Nears Completion

Construction of the City's new Fire Hall is nearing completion and the Fire Department members are anxiously awaiting their move from the old Fire Hall beginning December 14th. Thanks to the dedicated work of Fire Chief Randy Isfeld, Deputy Fire Chief Des Webster, General Manager of Planning and Operations Geoff Goodall and Project Manager Malcolm Fraser, the $6.5M project has progressed on budget and on schedule.


The new Fire Hall has been the subject of some criticism with suggestions that it is too expensive, too large, poorly located and not necessary. I would like to take this opportunity to explain some of the challenges the Fire Department was facing in the old facility and how the new Fire Hall will better serve the Fire Department and the community.


The existing Fire Hall does not have enough room to accommodate all the apparatus (trucks), requiring some of the trucks and equipment to be parked at the Public Works Yard or the Airport. The apparatus bays are so constrained that two truck doors cannot be opened at the same time and Fire Fighters do not have room to safely put on their gear when trucks are moving. There is also insufficient space to store, repair and service tools and equipment.

There are currently no facilities for Fire Fighters to store their personal gear or have showers following a fire, requiring them to return home and shower and change prior to retuning to work from call-outs. This is a health and safety concern. There are also no facilities to dry their wet turn-out gear which can result in Fire Fighters wearing wet gear in the event of back to back fires. The existing hall has limited opportunities for training, particularly simulations of various types of fire suppression and rescue scenarios. The City also does not have a proper Emergency Operations Centre with back-up power supply in the event of a major emergency. These are just a small sample of the inadequacies of the existing Fire Hall.

The new Fire Hall has been designed to address all of the above noted shortcomings of the existing Fire Hall and will adequately serve the Department for 40 to 50 years. It provides proper facilities for our 42 Fire Fighters to train and do their jobs efficiently and safely with capacity to accomodate growth in the years to come. Ironically, there are senior Fire Fighters that recall a time many years ago when the department moved from the old Fire Hall on Second Avenue (near Ken's Restaurant) to the existing Hall. At that time, people felt this new hall was too big, too expensive and unnecessary - sound familiar? Our new Fire Hall is well designed, pracitical and state of the art and should be something the community can be proud of for many years to come.