Town officially opens new Pefferlaw Fire Hall

By Mike Anderson

The Town of Georgina officially opened the new Pefferlaw Fire Hall on November 6.

The 8,000 square foot facility, Fire Station 1-8, incorporates the former Cooke’s United Church and features three double-depth apparatus bays that can accommodate fire trucks 40 feet in length, plus additional space for gear, repairs and training.

The new fire hall is home to 20 on-call volunteer firefighters, who operate three fire trucks — two pumpers and a tanker – and respond to approximately 240 calls a year, including structural fires, motor vehicle collisions and medical emergencies.

However, the fire hall is not regularly staffed, so a 9-1-1 Emergency phone is located next to the front entrance.

Although the new hall has been operating since April, the official opening ceremony was delayed by COVID restrictions.

Mayor Margaret Quirk, joined by Fire Chief Ron Jenkins, Deputy Fire Chief Michael Rozario, firefighters Rod and Brandon Baker, and council members, had the honour of cutting the official ribbon.

“Fire services are different than they were even five years ago. The apparatuses are bigger. The fires are faster. We have to make sure our firefighters have trained adequately. So this fire hall provides all of that for the community to ensure that they’re safe,” said Mayor Quirk.

Construction of the new fire hall began in August 2018, with a price tag of $3.7 million. However, costs ballooned to $5.8 million after repeated construction delays forced the Town to terminate its contract with BECC Construction Group Ltd. and hire Silver Birch Contracting Ltd. to complete the project.

Legal action against BECC and Echelon Insurance, the issuer of a Performance Bond, is still ongoing, with the Town seeking $3.58 million in damages for cost overruns and delay costs.

“This build went a lot longer than what any of us anticipated,” said Fire Chief Jenkins.

“Like any project, there are things that go well and things that need to be addressed. It was great to have the support from the Mayor and council to help us address issues as they went forward.”

“Our previous building served us well for 60 years. But the fire industry has changed, trucks have become bigger. And we are now aware of the dangers of off-gassing during combustion. Cancer is a major occupational illness with firefighters. So this new hall gives us the ability to clean our gear and to allow our firefighters to shower, so they don’t transport that home to their families.”

Ward 5 Councillor Dave Harding, who was as a volunteer firefighter for 45 years, and helped oversee the new hall’s construction, is also pleased with the final build and the potential to expand fire services.

“I never thought I’d see a structure like this in Pefferlaw, and it’s amazing to see it here,” he said.

“I’m happy we preserved the church and made it part of the fire hall, which they will use for staff and as a training room. I’m tingling with excitement to see the firefighters here finally get a fire hall that’s safe for them, comfortable and fits the trucks.”

“The old fire hall didn’t have the space. So with this new fire hall, the size of the bays, we got the room to grow for extra trucks and extra equipment that may need to be put in.”

While firefighter Rod Baker and his son Brandon agree the new hall will improve local fire services, they also say it will help make the job of fighting fires safer.

“This hall means the world to Pefferlaw and certainly means a lot to us,” said Rod, who’s been a volunteer and full-time firefighter for 38 years.

“We did a lot of training in the old hall, but you’re limited to what you can do in a small building like that. This one has the size that we can do whatever training we need to do inside, especially in the winter months when we can’t go outside and the equipment freezes.”

“You train to survive. You have to; everything has to be automatic when you go out on a call. So the only way to get that automatic feeling is to do the repetitive training.”

Brandon, who’s now a full-time firefighter after volunteering for five years in Pefferlaw, also believes the new hall will help attract recruits to the fire service.

“Everybody is proud of this building. I can see people looking at this and saying, I would like to be part of that,” he said.

Chief Jenkins agrees. “Absolutely, it will help. Recruiting is getting tougher and tougher because the demographics of a community change,” he said.

“In Keswick, we have no problem because there’s a lot of people. But it’s a bit tougher in Pefferlaw. The population is a bit older, and it’s not a big place. So, it becomes more difficult to attract people.”

Still, he is not concerned that the pool of volunteer firefighters in Pefferlaw will dry up any time soon, and there are no plans to hire full-time firefighters for the new hall.

“I don’t think it will dry up,” he said. “I think there are always young people coming on. It’s an exciting job. It’s a dangerous job. But there are always people wanting to do it, fortunately for us.”