New fire hall opens at Gilmore
Burnaby fire chief Bob Cook surveys the garage at the new fire hall No. 7, which has been built to accomodate future expansion.
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Up until a month ago, the neighbourhood around Burnaby Hospital was mainly served by fire crews from No. 5 hall, at Hastings Street and Carleton Avenue.
Not a big deal, distance-wise, said Burnaby fire chief Bob Cook, noting what’s important is travel time.
But as residential development has grown in the Lougheed corridor—and high tech and other companies have flocked to the Canada Way area—so has the traffic.
Going down the Gilmore Avenue hill to Canada Way is no longer such an easy task.
“It takes longer to get here from Lougheed than to get from the [No. 5] station to Lougheed,” said Cook.
That’s all changed now that Burnaby Fire Department has opened its seventh and latest fire hall on an oddly-shaped lot at 3151 Gilmore Diversion, an $8.1 million project that opens its doors to the public on Saturday, Sept. 26 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“It’s been on our priority list for a number of years,” said Cook.
“This station fills in any areas on the west side of Burnaby that were probably getting just a bit compromised as far as response time.”
Radiant heating and green roof
Inside the new fire hall, notices printed on fluorescent-coloured paper command: “Don’t nail or screw anything into any wall, floor or ceiling in this station,” followed by facetious threats of immediate termination or other similarly painful consequences.
The message is a serious one, however. The new hall uses radiant heating comprised of tubes filled with hot water and located not only in floors but in walls. Along with electrical wiring and other systems, the walls are off limits for punctures of even the smallest kind until fire crews become more familiar with the setup, Cook explained.
The new hall uses a similar design as those built in recent years on Hastings and Edmonds streets, but has been built to a LEED silver standard of sustainability.
A green roof sits over the apparatus bays, the plantings helping to keep the sun off the roof in the summer, said project manager John Cusano of the City of Burnaby. That also prolongs the life of the roof membrane which breaks down from ultraviolet rays. On another section of roof, it’s painted a bright white colour to reflect solar rays, and reduce cooling costs.
The building collects stormwater for use in landscaping, toilets and urinals, as well as to wash down floors and fire trucks.
Some lights operate on motion sensors.
It’s also designed to still be functional in the event of a disaster such as an earthquake.
Room to grow
The entire department benefits from the added space in the new hall, from training spaces to the well-equipped fitness room.
And for the fire crews posted there, there’s a lounge furnished with eight black leather recliners arranged around a flat-screen TV to use while they await emergency calls.
No. 7 hall is staffed with one crew of four to five firefighters on shift at any one time.
But the dorm areas have been built with space to expand, as it’s always more cost effective to build the space in the beginning than try to add on later, Cusano explained.
And, noted Cook, it includes separate dorm spaces for female firefighters of which the department currently has eight.
Back outside, while admiring a new pathway and retaining wall that’s helped spruce up the surrounding neighbourhood, he pointed out the construction cranes visible in the distance, a concrete reminder of why the hall had to be built.
“There’s quite a lot going on in this area.”
wchow@burnabynewsleader.com
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