We now know what the new Fire Hall No. 1, to be built at a future site just off Massey Drive, will look like.
Mayor Lyn Hall officially unveiled the design concepts, at the very site where the future fire hall will be built, revealing a state-of-the-art facility with a simple swooping design.
“I was absolutely blown away by what this looks like. It’s absolutely state of the art and a fantastic addition not only to this area but to the city,” said Hall.
The new fire Hall will be 50 per cent larger than the current Fire Hall No.1 and will also house an emergency operations centre and fire operations communications centre.
“This facility will have firefighter capabilities and it will have emergency services capabilities because that is something we found out very quickly during the wildfires of 2017 and 2018 that we needed a designated location for,” said Hall.
The five large glass truck bays are a main feature of the building which are meant to be open and visible to the public.
“We are trying to represent the capability of the fire department and not shut them behind closed doors so we have opened that up with a glazed frontage,” said Stuart Rothnie, architect with HCMA Architects and Planning.
The glass will also show off the larch and fir which was used in key areas on the inside of the building.
The building itself is made of steel and concrete, and the outside of the building will be cladded in metal for its durability and longevity.
“We were very conscious that we wanted to create a very strong presence for this building,” said Rothnie.
“We wanted to create a very simple clean form that as you drive by you recognize it very powerfully as the fire hall.”
He says the building will also feature fire engine red accents that will be used in the detailing on the windows, canopies, and entrances that will help identify the building as a fire hall because of the use of that colour.
The replacement fire hall follows a referendum in October 2017, where residents voted nearly 83 per cent in favour of rebuilding the current Fire Hall No.1, which is more than 60-years-old.
However, the new building will mean the entrance to the YMCA of Northern B.C. will have to be relocated off Massey Drive across form Masich Place Stadium and Del Laverdure Way.
Construction for the new fire hall is expected to cost $15 million and will begin in the spring once the snow melts.
