Victoria opens new main firehall and emergency operations centre in earthquake resistant building
The building also houses the city’s Emergency Operations Centre
A new 12-storey building at 1025 Johnson Street on the edge of Victoria's downtown now houses the city's main firehall and its emergency operations centre (EOC).
The eight-storey building also contains 130 units of affordable housing — owned and operated by Pacifica Housing — an office space level separating the firehall from residences and bays for two ambulances.
It's built to a higher seismic standard than the average building and is expected to remain operational in the event of an earthquake.
Tanya Seal-Jones, the city's emergency program co-ordinator, says she can breathe easy now that the EOC is ready.
Before, all emergency co-ordination equipment and supplies were kept in a trailer. In the case of an emergency, officials would determine where to set it up.
Given the likelihood of communication problems during a major disaster, it would have been difficult to let emergency staff know where they needed to go.
The new building is equipped with emergency generators, satellite technology and other backup methods of communication.
"It's a huge weight off my shoulders knowing everything's ready to go," said Seal-Jones.
In the event of an emergency, like an earthquake, everyone who needed to be a part of the co-ordination would go to the building.
Fire and emergency officials would be joined by representatives from police, transit, B.C. Emergency Health Services, city staff and elected representatives.
While they were working to co-ordinate a disaster response, they'd be able to eat from the emergency food supply that is stored in the building — which could be cooked using the large kitchen that fire crews use daily.
Modernized amenities for fire crews
While the EOC won't be in daily use, the building contains amenities for the firefighters who are always there.
In addition to a kitchen, there's a brand-new gym, a lounge, and a low-stimulant room with blackout curtains, where firefighters can go for downtime after a tough call.
"It's been shown to have tremendous benefit to individuals to be able to come back to a quiet space following a traumatic incident and just decompress," said Fire Chief Dan Atkinson.
Firefighters now also have individual spaces to sleep, as opposed to a more traditional open-dorm setting.
Each room has a bed and a small desk.
Atkinson hopes the separate rooms will help recruit a more diverse and inclusive fire crew.
Keeping noise down
Because the new fire hall is on a block with several residential towers, extra work was done to ensure fire calls wouldn't be disruptive.
As soon as firefighters are alerted to a call, they press a button to activate a traffic system.
That system activates a red light just outside the firehall, stopping traffic on the one-way street from driving in front of the bay doors.
It also causes the light at the nearby intersection of Johnson and Cook Streets to go green, meaning traffic on Johnson will flow away from the firehall.
Because of this, the fire trucks can safely pull away from their building without immediately activating their sirens — and waking up their neighbours.
The old headquarters at 1234 Yates Street will still house Victoria Fire's fleet maintenance department for at least two years, with no long-term plans yet made for the building.
The city has two other firehalls, at 650 Michigan Street and 740 Bay Street.