Southwold Fire Department unveils $4.3M fire hall in Talbotville, Ont.

A five-year project to build a new state-of-the-art fire hall in Talbotville, Ont. is complete.

This weekend, the Southwold Fire Department opened its doors to showcase all the amenities to the public.

“It really gives us room to grow,” said Chief Jeff McArthur of Southwold Fire. “We had an old station that did us very well, but we were really tight in there. We had very limited room for training; very limited office space and we only had three firetrucks in that hall. We now have proper facilities for firefighter decon, personal hygiene, cancer prevention, storage, lots of training facility, office space, so we’re excited.”

The total cost of this project is a modest $4.3 million, which is significantly less than many of the new halls built in other surrounding communities. One of the reasons for that is that the family of the late Bob McCaig donated the three acres of land. That land once belonged to the Ford Motor Company, which kick-started the growth of Southwold nearly six decades ago.

“This is, been a long time coming,” said Southwold Mayor Grant Jones. “We started the planning process in late 2018 or 2019, just before COVID hit, and then kind of shut things down while COVID went through the process there. We waited to see where the prices would land and it did come down to some degree. It’s been a long process and nice to see it come to fruition.”

The former hall had limited parking and training space and no room for training classes. The new station has three drive-through bays which can accommodate up to six emergency vehicles. There is also a separate room to store “bunker gear,” the protective suits worn by firefighters at emergency scenes, as well as space for the future installation of a washing machine that would decontaminate the gear after a fire, reducing the risk of carcinogens causing cancers in firefighters.

The Township of Southwold also built an entrance to the station off Talbot Line, which allows them to pull straight into the bays, rather than having to back in from Sunset Drive.

“The community support has been awesome,” said McArthur. “The community as a whole and the Township recognize that we had outgrown our previous facilities. There’s lots of exciting growth going on in the community. So, I think this, the community itself, along the fire department was pretty excited about the upgrade here.”