Land has been cleared for construction of a replacement fire hall in Fleetwood on the west side of 152 Street, near 93 Avenue.

The new Surrey Fire Services hall will be four times the size of the one it will replace three blocks south, near Fraser Highway.

The old Fire Hall #6, opened in 1961 and deemed no longer adequate to serve the growing community, will be demolished one day to accommodate the new SkyTrain line extension to Langley.

The capital cost is $30 million for the replacement fire hall, which will be around 23,000 square feet.

“Right now we’re in the site-preparation stages,” said Surrey Fire Chief Jason Cairney. “The clearing (of the site) is pretty well done. I believe there’s some few final pieces to go there, but nothing still standing.”

Construction should start in 2027, completion in 2028.

A design-build contract is due for consideration by Surrey council this spring, following a request for expressions of interest last October.

The old hall #6 is one of Surrey’s older fire halls, Cairney noted.

“The timing of the SkyTrain really timed out well with the need to replace that one, because the need was coming anyways to replace or rebuild or renovate that hall to make it bigger and more modern.

“Whether that was done on the current site or whether we had to move it, that really was precipitated by SkyTrain, which pushed us to a new location just up the street a little bit. The work would have needed to be done at some point anyways.”

Four residential lots were cleared for the new fire hall, to be a two-storey building with basement, the city’s website says.

Amenities will include three drive-through apparatus bays, storage spaces, offices, meeting rooms, fitness room, dorms, universal rooms, classroom, kitchen and dining rooms. Site development will mainly include ramps and dock for basement storage, parking lot, landscape, civil works and some outdoor amenities.

The new fire hall will have direct access to both 152 and 151A Streets.

The department analyzed calls for hall #6 and the potential impact of moving the building north three blocks.

“The bulk of the call volume is on the northern side side of that area,” Cairney noted, “so this supports that well and doesn’t really sacrifice the southern area because we can still get there quite easily down 152 Street.”

Cairney was named Surrey fire chief last September, replacing the retired Larry Thomas. He leads 428 firefighters in 15 stations, and 490 employees all told.

With the new Fire Hall #6, the department is preparing for the future, he said.

“Fleetwood is a busy area and with the SkyTrain coming, it’s only going to get busier,” he said. “The new hall is going to have three truck bays, it’s going to have enough living capacity for the crews that will populate those trucks now and into the future. The current hall, we have six members working there right now and and it’s really tight, with two trucks that run out of there.”

Key goals for the replacement hall, he said, are the health and safety for firefighters and efficiency for response times.

“There’s lots of health and safety improvements that have happened over the years and we’re working to try to build those in the design phase,” Cairney said. “Those are discussions we’re going to have with that design-build contractor and see how they go about achieving those.”

Peace Arch News

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