Inside the Maplewood Fire and Rescue Centre, natural light streams in from all directions.
The new home of District of North Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services is clad in natural materials. Over all three floors, there are places designed to bring people together and encourage them to talk.
It represents not just a change in esthetic trends, but in an underlying philosophy that a building can be designed to help take care of its inhabitants.
Compared to the bunker-like facilities he’s spent much of his career in, assistant Fire Chief Gunter Kramer said there’s no question the building is making a difference for those facing calls that range from the stressful to the traumatic.
“You go back into a fire hall that sometimes is more frustrating or depressing than the bad calls you came back from and … that doesn’t really make you feel any better,” he said. “And a building like this helps you.”
Health at the heart of new building
After years of construction, crews began responding to their first 911 calls out of the new building on Old Dollarton Highway in January.
The new facility, designed by S2 Architecture, consolidates numerous branches of the department that were spread over several smaller fire halls before – training, administration, public safety and operational command.
It’s designed to withstand the kinds of natural disasters that would make fire crews indispensable in the response and recovery. And it boasts a 92-per-cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to the older buildings it replaces.
“I think we’re very fortunate in the district. The foresight that went into this building, the amount of touches that went into it in the planning stages really set it up for success,” said Fire Chief Mike Danks. “It makes communications a lot easier. It gets people together, which builds morale, and it builds the culture, and I think that’s what we’re really lucky to have on the North Shore – this incredible culture.”
The facility has 16 bedrooms, eight of which will have crew members staying in them on any given night. The hallways in the living quarters are lined with felt that helps absorb sound and gives a soft, tactile experience when touched – another way in which the design is intended to make those inside feel better.
Down the hall is a sauna big enough for six or seven crew members. That perk is not simply for firefighters to enjoy a nice shvitz though – research has shown that toxins absorbed through the skin in a structure fire can be sweat back out before they contribute to long-term health problems. Outside the fire hall is a memorial wall dedicated to crew members who have died either in the line of duty or of cancers presumed to stem from members’ exposure to hazardous substances on the job.
Training for all types of emergencies
On the massive glass panels above the bay doors are Indigenous bear, heron, wolf and woodpecker designs by səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation) artist Olivia George, chosen to inspire strength, persistence, teamwork and adaptability – traits that firefighters share with the animals.
The new hall comes with the return of another popular symbol of the profession – a fire pole connecting the living quarters to the main hall. They fell out of fashion in the 1980s and 90s following injuries to firefighters but, Kramer said, their pole will shave minutes off the response time when minutes count to the person calling 911.
In terms of administrative space, the facility has more than it needs, but that too is by design. The district is renting out space to other agencies and non-profits as a means to generate revenue. Kramer jokes the remaining unused bedrooms could be a popular attraction for visitors seeking an Airbnb.
Outside in the new training centre, there are mock-ups of a single-family home, a commercial building and even a tug boat, which was provided by Seaspan to help train both their own crews and local firefighters for the event of a highly dangerous fire aboard a ship.
Just outside the perimeter fence (and occasionally inside it), deer paw around the fire-resistant vegetation carefully selected by the landscape architect. And beyond that is a ravine and the Windridge Escarpment where crews can train on high-angle rope rescues in a natural environment.
Costs escalate due to COVID-related disruptions
The project came about during a perfect storm of cost pressures – COVID-related delays, supply chain disruptions and the ensuing inflation in construction materials and labour. When it was still in the design phase in 2019, the district estimated it would cost $34 million. By the time contracts had been tendered in 2021, that rose to $48 million.
According to the district, the final cost was $61.2 million, including $6.8 million to remediate the land, which the municipality had used as a dump for refuse from public works projects from the 1960s to the late 1980s. That meant hauling away upwards of 6,000 truckloads of old telephone polls, chunks of asphalt and soil contaminated with heavy metals and hydrocarbons.
Danks, however, said everyone on the North Shore will be safer as a result.
“The payoff is you have an incredibly efficient response. This was designed to meet the quickest response possible from firefighters getting to the trucks and the trucks responding to certain areas,” he said.
Danks added he believes the Maplewood Fire and Rescue Centre will serve as a model for other departments to follow as they renew their own infrastructure in the years ahead.
In a statement, Mayor Mike Little welcomed the addition of the new fire hall.
“Our fire department is an integral part of the community, and we are fiercely proud of our firefighters. The new Maplewood Fire and Rescue Centre will enable District of North Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services to keep our community safe while continuing to be leaders in what they do,” he said. “The new fire hall will improve response times in the district and provide our firefighters with an environment to not only hone their skills but also rest and recover between calls.”
The district is planning a grand opening for the public to attend in June.
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