Stock photo courtesy of the CSRD

By Liam Verster

New Fire Hall Location

New fire hall to be built in Scotch Creek after wildfire destroyed the previous hall

Nov 26, 2024 | 1:51 PM

The Columbia Shuswap Regional District (CSRD) has purchased a property to house a new fire hall.

The new Scotch Creek-Lee Creek fire hall will be built on the pie-slice shaped property, located at 1435 Beatty Road in Scotch Creek, and will be twice the size of the previous fire hall.

The CSRD needed to purchase a property after the old fire hall was destroyed in the Bush Creek East wildfire in 2023.

The new property is better sized to allow for future fire hall expansions and better placement of the structure. It also has access points off both Beatty Road and Squilax-Anglemont Road, allowing for fire trucks to more easily move on the site.

It is also closer to the community of Lee Creek than the previous fire hall.

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The CSRD purchased the property for $350,000, which was less than the $400,000 the CSRD Board approved to spend on a property in June.

Decisions on what to with the property where the old fire hall stood was not determined, though the CSRD noted it may be declared as a surplus property if it is not deemed useful, or it may be sold to help offset costs of purchasing the new property.

The new fire hall will have a different design from the previous one but will still include important aspects such as space for fire trucks, gear storage, and a training room that could also be used for community events.

“In the short term, we will be building back what we had before, but the new site will have potential for future expansion as the community grows,” Derek Sutherland, CSRD’s General Manager of Community and Protective Services, said.

“We are pleased to be moving forward with rebuilding plans.”

Construction of the new fire hall will be mostly covered by fire insurance. A Request for Proposals for the design of the new fire hall closed on Nov. 22, 2024, with the CSRD saying it planned to start construction in 2025.