By Tahna Weston
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The St. John’s Fire Station is being moved to Dredge Bay to allow for the construction of a new facility on Factory Road.
The announcement was made by Attorney General and Minister of Labour and Public Safety, Sir Steadroy Benjamin, who confirmed that the relocation process is already underway. A source said that phone lines and other infrastructure were being moved on September 15.
“We’ve cleared the way. We are moving from the present location down to Dredge Bay to facilitate the improvements, renovation, modifications of the Fire Station on Factory Road. I really can’t mislead you by telling you exactly how far they’ve gone,” Sir Steadroy said.
He explained that Dredge Bay was selected because it offers space and existing infrastructure that makes it suitable for the Fire Department’s operations.
“Having examined the situation and compared the difficulties with the relocation, it was thought that the most appropriate place would be at the Dredge Bay area. The facilities are there, the building is there, there is adequate space for parking, adequate space for storing of the fire engines and operationally, that’s the best place right now to have it done.
“The police station in St. John’s had been there so all infrastructure is still there, so we can just move in and take off from there,” Sir Steadroy said.
He added that earlier proposals to use land east of the Factory Road site to construct a temporary fire station, while construction of the new facility was ongoing, were dismissed because of cost and time concerns.
“It makes more sense to have them move there than to build a structure to the east of the location on Factory Road; that would take maybe a year-and-a-half for us to do that. But the Dredge Bay, the building, the infrastructure is in place and that’s a much better location, better place for operation generally speaking, and that is why we decided to move down there rather than the open space to the east of the fire station, which would have taken quite a long time [and] a lot of expenses to be effected,” Sir Steadroy said.
The Factory Road station, which has served as the Fire Department’s headquarters for more than 60 years, has been the subject of repeated complaints. Earlier this year, Observer reported that at least four firefighters fell ill with symptoms linked to mould exposure at the facility.
Sir Steadroy, during an earlier interview, emphasized that the mould issue had persisted for nearly two decades, dating back to 2004.
The attorney general at the time pressed for a modern headquarters to be constructed as quickly as possible.
It was announced earlier that construction of the new headquarters was scheduled to begin later this year, and will take about two years to complete.
The project is being financed through the Global Climate Fund.
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