DIVFD - Fire Hall and Infrastructure

Fire Hall

The Denman Island Firehall is located at 5555 Denman Road, almost exactly in the centre of Denman Island. As a result, no place on the island is more than a few minutes away from the hall.

The firehall contains four vehicle bays, which house all our vehicles, as well as the B.C. Ambulance vehicle. It also contains offices, a meeting room, and workshop, as well as accommodations for the ambulance crew. The newer portion of the hall, which houses Engine 55 and the offices, meeting room and workshop, was built to modern earthquake-resistant building codes.

Standpipes

The Fire Department currently has a project under way to install standpipes at several major water sources on the island. These will be similar to the standpipe that has been in place on the Pickles Road bridge for some time. Standpipes facilitate rapid connection when our tanker trucks arrive to refill during a firefighting emergency, and will help maintain our equipment by controlling the entry of weeds and other foreign matter into our pumps and hoses.

The standpipe project is not supported by taxes. It is being funded entirely from money raised by the fire department through community fundraising projects.

We currently (May 2008) have standpipes at:

Pickles Road bridge
Morrison Marsh (MacFarlane Road)
Lone Pine Farm (Northwest Road)

Note that, although standpipes make our job easier and improve our response time, they are not considered hydrants for the purposes of homeowner insurance!

Other Water Sources

The Fire Department fills its trucks from several water sources on Denman Island. We have a large (10,000 gallon) water tank at the fire hall, which is filled from a well. Several residential areas of the island that are on local water systems have hydrants from which we can draw water.

In most firefighting operations, though, we pump water from ponds and marshes near the scene of the fire. The ability of our tanker trucks to refill quickly and deliver their water to the fire scene is critical to a successful firefighting operation. Our standpipe project will enhance our ability to do this.