The Canim Lake Fire Hall of the Forest Grove Volunteer Fire Department (FGVFD) is being completed.
Last November, the plumbing was roughed and concrete floor was laid in the third bay of the hall. Framing work has now been completed by Michael Gent, dividing the 43- by 12-foot space into a meeting/radio room with kitchenette, two bathrooms with showers, and a locker room. Storage space is provided overhead on a mezzanine floor.
Chief Bob Felker has received quotes for the electrical work and is in the process of seeking bids for the finished plumbing. He says the work will be pushed along as rapidly as possible until the fire hall is completed.
The Canim Lake Fire Hall was raised on the 2007 May long weekend by the community in an old-style work bee, at a time when the fire service was the member-funded Canim Lake Volunteer Fire Department.
In a 2008 referendum, property owners voted 87 per cent in favour of joining the tax-based Forest Grove service. That became a reality on Jan. 1, 2009.
Priority was first given to the acquisition of needed trucks and to firefighter recruitment and training. With those issues well in hand, attention has turned to completion of the Canim Lake fire hall.
FGVFD Hall #2 Canim Lake houses three vehicles in two bays: Engine 21, a large five-person Kenworth-powered pumper; Tender 21, a 2,000 gallon tanker; and First Responder 21, the hall’s original one-ton Chevy that is now equipped as a medical response unit.
Thanks to Jim Kolisnyk, of K2 Concrete, who donated his time, and to Ken Kerr, Michael Gent, Josh Derouin, Adam Cumming, and Rob Anderson – firefighters who spent a day wheeling concrete into the hall.