The community of Dalum, Alberta, is served by 15 volunteer firefighters who make up the Dalum Fire Protection Association (DFPA). These dedicated volunteers help protect over one million acres of land from fire and motor vehicle accidents.
But they have been in desperate need of a new fire hall for some time.
“We have six trucks in a three-bay facility with absolutely no room to even walk around, ” says volunteer Fire Chief Albert Jensen.
The current fire hall does not have enough room to hold all of the emergency response vehicles and equipment. Two of the support vehicles are parked outside in the weather, and another truck is stored inside a building at the fire chief’s farm, four miles from the fire hall. The building has no running water and no washroom. There is no room in the hall to gather, so the 15 volunteers are forced to travel long distances for meetings and training.
Without room to operate, it is also becoming hard to recruit new members as there is no room for more gear.
Integrity pleased to be part of community fire hall project
The good news is that construction of a new fire hall has already begun. It will contain six bays, allowing each emergency response unit to be stored inside. There will be sufficient room for all apparatus, equipment and training gear. It will include a board room to host meetings and training events, enabling DFPA to recruit and retain volunteer firefighters–the integral part of the department.
“We’ll have room so we can actually get around our trucks and check everything,”says Jensen. “We serve a large area and can now host our share of meetings.”
The team at Integrity Post Structures is glad to be part of this community initiative. “Our model is perfect for this type of commercial structure,” says Al Williams, partner at Integrity Post Structures. “We engineered and designed this building to meet the specific needs of the fire fighters.”
Hear more about the Dalum fire hall project
BUILDING SPECS
70′ x 132′ x 18′ with nine overhead doors
See their video entry for UFA’s Get ‘n’ Give Contest, to help raise the funds require to build a new hall. This fire hall will help the DFPA to make the entire community a safer place for many decades to come.