Fernie Fire and Emergency Services Department welcomed the public to the fire hall on Apr. 10 for an open-house.
The fire crew gave tours of their facility at 1492b Railway Ave. and offered rides in their trucks.
The fire hall, located on the east side of the railway tracks near the derby grounds, is a temporary location that was established to house the fire crew until a new building is constructed. The fire crew has faced challenges with mobilization in this space due to the building layout and design. Fire Chief Brendan Morgan said they want to raise awareness of some of the difficulties they face located at a site that was not designed for a fire crew.
The crews face the challenge of moving in between three separate buildings on an emergency call. They must leave the office or break room and get through two code-locked gates to gather their supplies and gear up, and reach the trucks.
Once they leave the facility, they frequently get stopped by trains and get delayed in the school zone near Isabella Dicken Elementary School.
Morgan said it takes more than four minutes just for them to get everything together and leave.
"When National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) expects you to be on scene within 10 minutes for a fire, we're already behind the eight ball. We're finding that we're averaging just over 10 minutes because of the situation," he said.
"When you're in a fire hall that's purpose built, your truck's in same place as where you're working and it's more efficient," he added. "You should be out of building in 90 seconds. Losing three minutes and 10 seconds can make all the difference in the world on a serious medical call or a fire."
Morgan added that they've had a few medical calls in the past few months, where they were unable to respond quickly enough due to delays in getting mobilized.
Morgan said the crew is advocating for the fire hall at 1500 5 Ave. Planning for the new building is currently underway and the crew has been involved in the process. Morgan said that while they're supportive of a more basic cost-cutting design, some features are non-negotiable.
The building has to be built to B.C Building Code and NFPA standards, which means it must be located in close proximity to where the firefighters work and have good ventilation to filter toxins like diesel particulate from the bays and bunker gear room.
Morgan said the department is currently well-rated in the Fire Underwriters Survey, since they have a decently sized team and the proper equipment, but he worries that if insurance agents actually took a trip out to visit the property and saw where they were working, their rating would be worse and insurance rates would go up.
Demolition has begun for the fire department's previous fire hall on 692 3 Ave. to make space for an apartment building run by Elk Valley Family Society. The fire hall was decommissioned a few years ago after a safety review found that there were significant health and safety hazards in the building.
As workers began to tear the building down, they found something special hidden behind a wall.
On Mar. 28, workers knocked down a wall in the former training room, revealing a collection of signatures, written messages and old photographs from the fire crew that moved into the building in 1981.
"We were told when I first started that there were messages behind the wall. It being 25 years since, I was always curious about what was behind the wall. It was cool to see a lot of signatures and names of the people I worked with, but also people before me," said Morgan.
The bricks were from Fernie's original fire hall built in 1904 and were transferred to the previous space on 3 Ave. Morgan said they've saved the bricks to include in a facade at the new hall, to preserve the history.
"Firefighting's all about tradition," he said.
There will be another open-house on Apr. 12.
