Nelson Fire Hall - Nelson, BC - Commercial Commemorations on Waymarking.com

Two years in the making, the fire hall entered service on May 21, 1913, over 101 years ago as of today. It was built by John Burns & Son to replace the previous fire hall, which served the city from 1894. The location is up the hill, further from downtown than the old one. It was felt that because of much residential construction to the south of downtown, up the hill, this would be a more suitable location.

In May and June of 2013 the fire hall celebrated its 100th anniversary with several events: hosting the spring meeting of the Fire Chiefs' Association of BC, hosting an anniversary reception at their own museum, held a phenomenally successful open-house barbeque at the fire station and joined the Nelson Road Kings Car Club annual car show to co-host an antique fire truck display, which their twin 1944 Bickle-Seagrave engine and ladder trucks attended.

On Mar 14, 2013 the Nelson Star published an article about the fire hall and its upcoming centennial. The article, reprinted below, recounted snippets of the history of the Nelson Fire Service, begun in 1891 with a bucket brigade, and of the fire hall itself, built in 1912 and 1913.

Also a small bronze plaque was mounted at the entrance to the fire hall to commemorate the event.

For the restoration efforts that went into restoration of the building, the Fire Hall won the City of Nelson's "Heritage Building of the Year" award in 1984, making it the fifth recipient of the award, the first being awarded in 1980.

Nelson Fire Hall

Some 40 fire chiefs from around BC arrive in Nelson today for the BC Fire Chief Executives spring meeting being held at the local fire hall.

The organization, which held its inaugural meeting in 1907, chose to hold its three-day meeting here to help Nelson Fire Rescue mark the centennial of the Ward Street fire hall, constructed in 1913. But the history of Nelson Fire Rescue is even older than the building it now calls home.

“Nelson was among one of the first paid fire departments in the province,” Nelson fire chief Simon Grypma points out.

Nelson Fire Service began in 1891 with the first bucket brigade. In 1893 the first fire station was built at Josephine and Victoria.

“That began the long history of the fire service’s rich and colourful history of burly firemen running along Baker Street with hand-drawn hose carts to extinguish the many fires in stores and homes until the first horse was bought in 1897 that could pull the hose wagons up hill,” Grypma explains.

In 1913 the present station at Ward and Latimer was built and opened on May 21 with two teams of horses and quarters for 12 fire men and the chief.

“The fire station was the most modern in the province complete with a fire alarm system throughout the City,” Grypma says.

“The alarm boxes were located on the street corners and when a passerby spotted smoke from a fire they would activate the alarm box.

“This would send a signal to the fire station and set off the big brass bell hung in the horse bays. The door would automatically open and the horses would move to their harness stall. And away they would roll to the fire.”

Today the 100-year-old station is filled with modern firefighting equipment and a well-trained group of career and auxiliary members.

To mark the fire hall’s centennial, Nelson Fire and Rescue and the City of Nelson are planning a great lineup of celebrations throughout the spring and summer.
From the Nelson Star