Commissioning of a first temporary barracks “like Legos” for Waverley West

After a very long wait, the temporary Waverley West fire station was officially put into service on Saturday in Winnipeg, to improve response times in this growing community.

Residents are calling, calling, calling. […] But, finally, here we arerejoiced the neighborhood’s municipal councilor, Janice Lukes, during a press conference preceding a ribbon cutting ceremony.

She has been leading the project since her election in 2014.

We’ve been talking about this for a long, long time.

The $6.8 million barracks are coming to life almost 20 years after Winnipeg city council approved a development plan for the area where 57,000 people now reside.

Located at 130 promenade Eaglewoodbarracks no. 15 – the first in the district – will house a fire truck and an ambulance operating under the direction of a permanent team of four firefighters and two paramedics.

The objective is to reduce response time while awaiting the commissioning of a permanent installation planned next to the Bison Run School.

According to a 2020 municipal report, response time in this area of ​​the Manitoba capital was 11 minutes and 12 seconds in 2019 – one of the longest in Winnipeg and well above the national standard of six minutes and 20 seconds.

We now have this beautiful barracks. We will start the permanent barracks, I think, with a groundbreaking early next yearsays Ms. Lukes.

Like giant Legos

This innovative temporary solution helps provide vital emergency services to this growing communitysays Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham.

The caserne no. 15 of the promenade Eaglewood is in fact not like the others: it was assembled in modules, in just one week.

What is truly remarkable, of course, about this barracks is its flexibilitysupports the mayor.

It can be dismantled and reassembled elsewhere to adapt to the needs of the city, whether renovating an existing barracks or increasing capacity in a new neighborhood.

It’s a little more complicated, but a bit like giant Legos.

This place is coolexclaimed Temi, 10, while visiting the new barracks with his father, Fisayo Fatoki.

I thought it would be a great experience for himsays the father who settled in Waverley West in 2020.

This is no ordinary barracks.

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Proximity to a fire station has many advantages, such as response time in the event of an incidentillustrious M. Fatoki. This is a project that we have been waiting for for a long time.

A first in Winnipeg

Since its opening on December 19, emergency teams on site have responded to 151 calls for service, including one large structure fire which was quickly brought under control, reports the chief of the Winnipeg Fire and Paramedic Service, Christian Schmidt.

The time taken for this intervention was 5 minutes and 4 seconds, according to Mr. Schmidt.

In an emergency, every second counts.

The temporary barracks has an estimated lifespan of 50 years, according to the City, but it will only serve the neighborhood of Waverley West only for the next two years before being disassembled and moved elsewhere.

This is the first time that Winnipeg has opted for a modular solution of this type.

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This is something we’ve only seen in videos and heard about in other places in Western Canadaexplains Christian Schmidt.

Barracks no. 15 will thus allow the service to adapt and develop its operations as our city grows.

When the permanent barracks of Waverley West completed, the city plans to move its little modular sister to the St. James neighborhood, according to Winnipeg’s deputy chief of support services, Tom Wallace.

So we are planning to move this fire station to St. James in order to meet the needs of that community, because the existing fire station is frankly at the end of its life.