Re: Firefighters hunt for training base, News, March 23 2012.
The article raises many questions about fire halls with firefighter training facilities in residential communities, and the resulting costs to municipal taxpayers.
In the article three Langford fire officials enunciate the inappropriateness of trying to use fire halls in residential communities as firefighter training facilities.
The awful noise involved in training is realistically described as, “The shrill roar of metal against metal pierces the air as a Langford volunteer firefighter tears into a car with a air chisel. He jackhammers into the trunk, while a nearby colleague pries the Jaws of Life into a door hinge. The commander shouts instructions over the din of the generator and hum of hydraulic tools.”
Because of these terrible conditions for neighbouring residents and firefighters the Langford fire department is looking into building a new firefighter training facility in an industrial area.
This article makes clear that for the good of firefighters and the good of neighbourhoods and their residents, firefighter training facilities should not be placed in residential areas.
This raises the question of why is the Town of View Royal planning to build a firefighter training facility with a new fire hall in the centre of a residential community?
It seems logical and economical that the Town of View Royal should join the city of Langford and maybe other municipalities to build one firefighter training facility, away from residential areas, that all sharing municipalities would contribute to enabling the best and latest facility at a fraction of the cost of each municipality funding their own facility.
I am sure that this very sensible co-operating with other municipalities would save property taxes, would improve firefighter training, would improve neighbourhoods and would thrill all the property tax payers in the involved municipalities.
Frank Blundell
View Royal