Work has begun to build a new fire hall in the Lund area on Highway 101 leading into the village.
Three families jointly own the two-and-a-half acre site on which the new fire hall will be constructed, and they donated the property to qathet Regional District (qRD) for the purpose of building the new fire hall.
“qathet Regional District is ecstatic with the donation of the property,” said board chair and Electoral Area A director Patrick Brabazon.
Northside Volunteer Fire Department chief Jim Brown said the site of the current auxiliary fire hall on Larson Road in Lund is really small.
“We couldn’t put this new building there,” said Brown. “Building the new fire hall on this new site is a big positive in 100 ways.”
Brown said the new fire hall will initially house a fire engine and tender to service the Lund area.
He said the new location is also advantageous. There was a gap in the service area with the Larson Road fire hall location. With the more southerly location of the new facility, properties on Malaspina Road will be getting better insurance coverage for being in the catchment area.
Mike Wall, qRD manager of asset management and strategic initiatives, said the new site has the potential to improve response timing beyond what the previous site covered.
“The donation is an extremely generous gift to the community and addresses all of the safety and operational shortcomings identified at the former Lund fire hall site,” said Wall.
Wall said it is hoped that the new fire hall will be operational in the summer of 2021.
At a sod-turning ceremony for the new fire hall on October 3, Brown personally thanked the families for their generous donation of property for the new fire hall location.
