Construction on the new Fire Hall 2 is officially complete.
On a rainy Friday morning, The Squamish Chief took a tour of the new and improved fire hall with Squamish Fire Rescue Chief Aaron Foote.
“The old hall that was here was built in 1978, and it didn't have a lot of the groundwork that was done for this hall,” Foote said.
“This hall has hundreds of stone columns that the fire hall is sitting on. This area has some tough building conditions with settlement and so the stone columns help to stabilize the ground, and then anything that's built on top of it shouldn't move in the event of an earthquake or even just normal settlement.”
The new hall has the possibility to have four stories of wood frame built on top of it which Foote says could potentially be rental apartments in the future.
To clean some of the gear used by the firefighters after responding to an event, a high-tech ultrasonic cleaning tank has been installed, which at first glance looks like an industrial-sized dishwasher.
“We unload all the equipment that we used in the fire like flashlights, radios and air packs, and they get washed down in [this room], and then some of the parts would go into this ultrasonic cleaning tank,” Foote said.
“So this uses a chemical and hot water, and it uses ultrasonic vibration to get into all the microbes of the equipment, such as face masks and that sort of thing, and really cleans it to factory, brand new cleanliness.
“It's super high tech, we have one of these at [Fire Hall 1] as well, and I think we're the only fire department that has one of these in the Lower Mainland that I'm aware of.”
An addition coming soon to the $15.8 million facility is a sauna in each of the bathrooms—something Foote says is a game changer after a day of putting out fires.
When they head towards the flames, firefighters are often exposed to toxic chemicals.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified firefighting as a known carcinogen: Between 2005 and 2016, 86% of occupational fatality claims for Canadian firefighters were linked to cancer, according to Health Canada.
“What the sauna does is it makes you sweat out the toxins, so your skin is very porous and able to absorb smoke and chemicals,” Foote said.
“Basically, the saunas are there, so you sweat all those toxins out and then you go have a shower. The difference it makes is incredible, you can smell a fire on yourself for about a week, but if you're able to sweat it out, you have a much better chance of reducing those toxins.”
The facility also has new dorm rooms for department members, as well as a kitchen, lounge area, and gym.
Squamish Fire Rescue currently has one fire chief, two deputy chiefs, 13 career firefighters and 50 paid on-call firefighters. The combined new fire halls will house seven fire apparatus, and four response vehicles.
The new facility is the second of three critical facilities identified for priority replacement in the District of Squamish’s 2019 Real Estate and Facilities Master Plan.
“These are critical life safety facilities that we have invested in substantially and not only does this ensure our firefighters have access to appropriate facilities, but it vastly improves our community resiliency,” said Mayor Armand Hurford in a press release.
“Council set an ambitious goal to upgrade critical facilities and safeguard the needs of our rapidly growing community now and into the future. It’s very exciting that two of these facilities are now complete with many more upgrades planned or already underway throughout our community.”
The first of the three projects was the $16.7 million upgrade of the Alex Munro Fire Hall 1, which opened on Aug. 26, 2022.
Members of the public are invited to tour the newest facility at the Squamish Fire Rescue annual open house on Oct. 6 between 12 and 3 p.m.
Fire Hall 2 is located at 40439 Tantalus Road.
For more information on the event visit the District of Squamish website.
