Prince George firefighters said goodbye to their old home at Fire Hall No. 1 at Seventh Avenue and Dominion Street and moved their tools of the trade to the bright new hall on Massey Drive Saturday afternoon.
Ready for their next call from dispatch, they had their trucks, helmets, jackets, hoses, axes and breathing apparatus within easy reach all under one roof in the warm spacious building and for the christening ceremony they celebrated the first day in their new digs with a slide down the shiny brass fire pole.
The only thing missing from the start of the new era was the firehouse Dalmatian.
Trent Blair, a 12-year Prince George Fire Rescue veteran considered it an honour to be part of the historic opening shift in the 26,000-square-foot facility.
“We’ve been waiting a long time, our other hall was built in 1956 and it’s lasted over 60 years, so to be the first guys into this new hall is a real privilege,” said Blair. “It’s pretty exciting for us as firefighters and even the city of Prince George. To be first in on the ground floor to set it up and have everything in place and be able to build it right from scratch is so incredible.”
It was dull overcast day Saturday but Blair immediately noticed a huge difference in his new workplace.
“Just the daylight,” said Blair. “We have all the windows and the natural light and a full southern exposure. Our other hall had smaller doors, smaller windows and it was tight and condensed, built in ’56 with lots of add-ons.”
Anthony Kovacevic began his career with PDFR the same day as Blair and aside from the memories of all the days he spent with his colleagues in the old hall and some of the pranks they played on each other, there’s not much he’ll miss about what they left behind.
“Everything’s new and it’s pretty nice to be here,” said Kovacevic. “When you first drive up to a hall like this it’s pretty impressive, there’s nothing like it. The old hall was in pretty rough shape, falling apart, and it needed a lot of renovations if we were going to stay in it. It’s nice to watch the crews heading out on calls. They can get to anywhere in the city much faster from this location.”
PGFR responds to an average 5,000 calls per year and it didn’t take long for the first crew to be dispatched out of the new hall. At 2:55 p.m., 50 minutes after their last call-out from the old No. 1, they were called for a lift assist to help an ambulance crew move a bariatric patient.
The five-bay drive-through garage allows crews to load and unload their trucks in a closed but ventilated space and they’ll be keeping their rigs maintained and spotless with a well-drained floor to catch the water they’ll use to wash them down. They’ll drive in from the back and exit from the front so there’s no longer a need to back in those big trucks through a narrow door.
Firefighters are sometimes exposed to hazardous material on their calls and there’s now a designated decontamination area away from crew quarters with a dedicated room for storage of protective gear.
Most modern fire halls are single-storey buildings and fire poles are not needed and very few fire halls in B.C. still have them. Although crew sleeping quarters, the kitchen and meeting rooms are on the main floor of the new Prince George hall has the gym on the second floor, which means a fire pole was needed. Seconds count when lives are in jeopardy and if firefighters happen to be pounding weights or riding the stationary bike when the call sounds they will be using that pole to get to their trucks as soon as possible. Kovacevic guesses he went down the old No. 1 pole at least 500 times. He let gravity do its thing again a few times Saturday for photos at the new hall it never fails to bring out the kid in him.
“I was just saying to the guys, it’s the same pole and I’m happy to slide down it,” Kovacevic said. “It’s a pretty cool experience. I heard, at first, that we weren’t getting a pole in this hall and it’s kind of neat to see it. It’s got some nostalgia to it.”
All eight firefighters on the downtown crew Saturday afternoon did one last slide before they left for the new hall. PGFR acting lieutenant Jason Smith says there have been a few rough landings over the years that led to ankle sprains but that just comes with the hazards of being a firefighter.
Smith, a 16 ½-year member of the force, says all the firefighters are ecstatic about the move and he’s anxious to show it off to the public once that becomes possible. While it was an expensive move that will end up costing taxpayers $17 million, it had to happen.
“This is very much a blessing and a beautiful hall and we’re lucky to have it and all the new amenities, it’s absolutely mind-blowing,” said Smith. “We were really looking forward to getting into this facility and once COVID is over we’re going to be bursting at the seams trying to do tours and bringing people through.
“I tell all our new recruits, your first family you don’t get to pick and your second family you do, and that’s what happens for us in the fire hall. There are competitions to get in here. Everyone who gets on, it’s a very big day for them to get hired and you become part of family when you’re in these halls.
“This is our second home, we live here, we sleep here, we clean here, we cook here, everything, and it’s like leaving an old home, you’ve been there so long and so there’s definitely a part of you that will miss it, but that house has had its time. Our family has grown.”
The two crews now operating out of the new hall will be there until their rotation ends at the end of March. PGFR crews serve six-month rotations at all four halls so eventually the entire force will work at the new building. Firefighters follow eight-day workweek schedules that start with two 10-hour day shifts followed by two 14-hour night shifts, then have four days off. Each firefighter in the force of about 100 typically works 42 hours per week.
The hall on Dominion will continue to house PGFR’s fire operations and communications centre dispatch equipment and staff until the move is complete in the fall.
