Dear Editor:
The City of Nanaimo has recently opened their sixth fire hall at a cost of approximately $3 million.
This is not the city’s primary hall, as some would have the people in Osoyoos believe, but a three-bay building to service the outskirts of town.
The Town of Oliver’s original fire hall was very dangerous, as is the Town of Osoyoos’ current fire hall because both back out onto a busy highway.
A new hall was built nine years ago in Oliver – and I believe the land was donated – but, unfortunately, it had to be added on to this year because they needed more room.
The new addition brings the overall area of the floor plan to the same size as that of the new proposed fire hall in Osoyoos.
Oliver has an additional two acres at the air strip where practices and training are held, taking the dimensions of their fire hall and training area to a much larger space than that of the combined future fire hall and training area proposed for Osoyoos.
Some have questioned the need for a tower in the Osoyoos design. Look around and you will see there are many four-storey buildings here in Osoyoos that are not reachable by the present means.
There are no ladders high enough to reach the fourth floor of these buildings.
The training tower offers the opportunity for firefighters to practice both ladder and stair rescue skills in a safe and controlled environment designed just for that purpose.
On a busy day in the middle of our summer season, where are these volunteers supposed to park when they are called to the current fire hall?
It is imperative that we keep the secondary hall on the east side of town in Osoyoos that houses two firetrucks and equipment enough to handle emergencies on that side of the bridge.
Residents who live on the east side must not be without aide if something happens to the bridge as half of the volunteer firefighters live in and around that area.
The committee of firefighters, who have voluntarily worked on this project for many years, have done their homework.
This new hall will meet all of the emergency needs of our community for many years to come.
A volunteer firefighter dedicates his life to the safety of their community and will drop everything to be there when WE need them.
Thank you.
Helen Pain
Osoyoos, B.C.
