View Royal Public Safety Building - Firehouses on Waymarking.com

Since 1957, View Royal Fire Rescue had been operating out of a fire hall (WMHNB0) half a kilometre to the southeast that had become far too small and outdated to adequately serve the community. The old building had issues with mould, heating, pests, and a ventilation system that would sometimes draw in soot from the gear room and deposit it in other parts of the hall. Despite being expanded twice over the years, it was also too small to house all of the department's apparatus and had few amenities or working spaces.

Calls for a new fire hall first came in the early 1990s from the chief at the time, after engineering reports determined the current hall wouldn't survive even a moderate seismic event. In 1999, a proposal to build a new hall for $1 million was rejected. A new proposal was put forward in the early 2010s, but residents had concerns about the $8 million that would need to be borrowed to pay for the projected facility. The Town of View Royal chose to use the Alternative Approval Process, through which the proposal would go ahead unless 10% of electors in the municipality expressed their opposition within 30 days. This meant approximately 770 electors would need to submit elector response forms by July 11, 2012. In the end, over 1300 response forms were received, forcing the proposal to go to a referendum for approval by View Royal residents. The proposal was revised and revenue was drawn from other sources including the sale of the former fire hall to reduce the required loan to $5.49 million, which was approved by 64% of voters in a referendum on November 21, 2012.

Ground was broken for the new hall on August 15, 2013. Construction fell behind schedule and the original April 2014 move-in date passed, but costs stayed on budget. The fire department finally moved into the new hall in March 2015, over 20 years after the first calls for a new hall. The official opening was held on June 13, 2015. The 20000-square-foot building not only houses View Royal Fire Rescue, but also the town's Protective Services department, which includes building inspections, bylaw enforcement, fire prevention and investigation, and emergency response services. Built to post-disaster standards, the building is designed to withstand a magnitude-8 earthquake and act as as a remote workspace for West Shore RCMP, a standby location for BC Ambulance paramedics, and a remote town hall in the event of a disaster. The hall also has sleeping space for up to four firefighters, meaning overnight response times can be reduced by as much as six to eight minutes. The new hall has eight drive-through apparatus bays, in contrast with the five back-in bays in the old hall.

The old fire hall was demolished in late-October 2015.

Paid or Volunteer: Part Paid / Part Volunteer EMS Involvement: yes Has 911 Dispatch: yes Has Emergency Call Box: no Has Emergency Siren: no Has Fire Pole: yes Number of Firetrucks: 9 Related Website: [Web Link] Physical Address: 333 Island Highway Victoria, BC Canada V9B 1G9 Number of Emergency Staff: 36 Average Alarms Per Year: Not Listed Rating: Not listed

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