Side-stepping, Fire Chief Ian Thompson can walk comfortably, but with little extra room between the front of the fire-truck and the garage door that the truck will exit when necessary. The space between the back of the truck and the back wall of the fire station is much less comfy - to fit this truck into the station at all, a chunk of dry wall had to be removed to make room for its ladder.
In a short tour of the fire station on Grafton Road with Thompson and Councilor Alison Morse (council liaison to the Fire Hall Facility Steering Committee) these are just a few examples of the inadequacies of Bowen Island’s main fire hall.
“In an emergency,” says Morse, pointing to the area right at the entrance of the hall which houses a dispatch centre, a radio room, storage and the firemen’s gear, “This is just not going to work.”
Gear required for all 35 members of the Bowen Island Fire Department is in fact hung up on pegs throughout the fire hall.
“If something big happened and we needed everyone, it would be mayhem in here,” says Thompson.
In the case of even a low to moderate earthquake, that mayhem could be much worse, as the building was declared seismically unsound in 2002.
Now, twelve years later, the municipality has moved on from the idea of re-habilitating the island’s main fire hall (a 2008 audit recommended against the idea) and has chosen a location on which to build a new one. If things go ahead as planned, the construction of the new firehall will begin in September of 2015. The cost of this endeavour is predicted to be between $2 and 2.5 million. This is a significant cost for a community of less than 4,000 people, but one other islands – such as Saturna and Mayne Islands – have taken on.
In June, councilor Morse and Councilor Andrew Stone visited Saturna Island (population 350) for an Islands Trust Council meeting and made a trip to the local fire hall while they were there.
“It’s not so much the Saturna fire hall that impressed me,” says Morse, “It’s more seeing a modern fire hall, and the comparison between that and what we have. There’s proper HAZMAT storage, proper shower facilities and changing rooms. You can walk around the trucks. This is a small community, and it has the fire hall we need.”
Councillor Stone says that what impressed him was that all emergency services were housed within one building.
“The fire department, the RCMP and the ambulance service each had their own distinct, private areas, but they were also all connected. So in the case of a major earthquake they would not only be connected by phone, but they’d be right there for each other.”
Councillor Cro Lucas, who is also a member of the Fire Hall Facilities Steering Committee, says this idea was discussed and received positively by both the RCMP and paramedics, but going forward with that intention would require that both of these organizations sell their current properties.
“We need to move forward on the new fire hall sooner rather than later,” says Lucas.
“It is not out of the question though, that as we start getting down to brass tax they [the paramedics and RCMP] might get on board and that might even help to finance the project.”
Back in January, council voted in favour of putting the new fire hall on Lot 1 (beside the public works yard on Mount Gardner Road) of the municipality’s community lands. John Green, the chair of the municipality’s Infrastructure Advisory Committee, says that this location makes sense in terms of costs required to develop and access the site. Councillor Lucas says he was strongly in favour of the location of Lot 1 for the new fire hall.
“The location wasn’t contentious in terms of cutting down a wholesale number of trees, and it’s a great area because it is already being used for municipal public works,” he says.
One major drawback to this proposed location is that it leaves Hood Point West more than 8 km from the fire hall and consequently. This means higher insurance costs for area residents.
Hugh Freeman says that according to his odometer, his house in Hood Point West is within 8 km of the proposed new fire hall, but that insurance companies see it differently.
“I am disturbed by this decision, as there are houses out here that aren’t getting the same protection as lots which are currently empty on Cape Roger Curtis, or in Seymore Bay,” says Freeman, referring to the fact that properties on that end of the island come within 8 kilometers of the satelite fire hall on Adams Road. “I’m all for a new fire hall, but we are all paying taxes towards it. To me, the idea should have been that everyone on the island would be treated equally, receiving equal protection.”
Mayor Jack Adelaar was not present when council chose Lot 1 as the site for the new fire hall, but says he agrees with their decision.
“The other locations are closer to the Cove where people require commercial property, and we want to be able to accommodate that. The chosen location is really good because it basically covers everybody, but we can’t subjugate the rest of the island to something else just because of the eleven homes on Hood Point West.”
