Dignitaries, including several Nanaimo city councillors on the site of where a new $20 million fire hall will stand. (Derek Johnstone/City of Nanaimo)

By Ian Holmes

new fire hall

Construction starts on primary fire hall in downtown Nanaimo

Jul 29, 2020 | 5:26 PM

NANAIMO — Shovels are in the ground to build a new multi-purpose fire hall # 1 in downtown Nanaimo, capping a roller-coaster ride to advance the project.

A groundbreaking ceremony took place Wednesday for the facility budgeted at $20 million to be constructed beside the current seismically unsound fire hall # 1 on Fitzwilliam St. at Milton St.

Fire chief Karen Fry said consolidating five key services under one roof, while moving front line firefighters to the bottom floor is among numerous features to improve community safety.

“They’ll have easy access from their quarters out to the apparatus bay,” chief Fry said in front of an excavator for the project.

The 23,000 sq/ft two-and-a-half bay hall will include a communications hub filled with monitors to oversee City infrastructure and coordinate large scale emergency responses.

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“The third floor will be our emergency operations centre where we have representatives from not only the City but from the community to help manage emergencies in a large scale event,” Fry said.

The new fire hall will also house emergency dispatchers, administration staff, and loss and prevention officers.

The City’s manager of engineering and public works Bill Sims told NanaimoNewsNOW their contractor is expected to begin meaningful on-site work next week, while an anticipated opening is a little over two years away.

Sims said the current 54-year-old fire hall will be demolished once the new building opens, a process which will take two to three months.

Recent revelations of the fire hall’s rising costs were addressed by mayor Leonard Krog during the groundbreaking ceremony, who referenced the ever-present risk of a devastating earthquake.

Krog said some “cranky taxpayers in Nanaimo are no doubt saying ‘boy is this worth it?'”

“The very vehicles that you need to ensure that this city doesn’t burn to the ground are trapped in there, destroyed themselves. That’s why it’s being done, it’s being done for a very important purpose,” Krog said.

The lowest tendered price for the new fire hall was $3 million higher than what taxpayers approved for borrowing in a 2018 alternate approval process.

A finance and audit committee meeting in June heard COVID-19 restrictions impacting construction firms drove up costs.

The meeting also revealed a prior consultant’s preliminary floor plans were nearly 40 per cent smaller than what was required for a safe and functional facility.

Councillors voiced at length concerns at the mid June meeting regarding the project’s planning process and mounting costs.

Several internal efficiencies were made to save money, including adjusting plans to no longer require a temporary fire hall during construction.

A 2017 business case cited numerous physical shortcomings for the deteriorating building, prompting the city council of the day to replace the facility as opposed to fix it.

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