Pierrefonds getting new fire station
A vital tool for borough’s planned growth, official says
A new fire station that will cover the fast-growing western half of Pierrefonds-Roxboro where more new residential development is forecast has been approved by the city of Montreal.
The $7.1-million facility will be located alongside the borough’s snow dump on Pierrefonds Blvd., just west of Château Pierrefonds Ave.
Construction of Caserne 59 is set to begin next month and to be completed by August 2013. The four-bay, two-storey glass, concrete and aluminum structure will be LEED OR certified, according to city officials.
The new station at 18661 Pierrefonds Blvd. was approved Oct. 3 at a Montreal city council meeting. A second new station, Caserne 32, was approved for Rivière-des-Prairies.
The fire stations, which bring to 65 the total on Montreal Island, will ensure that response times continue to be met, Claude Trudel, a city executive committee member responsible for public security, said in a statement.
The new station will mean the fire department will be able to maintain its responsetime standards as residential development moves west in Pierrefonds, said Sylvain Carrière, Service de sécurité incendie de Montréal’s chief of operations and strategic planning.
Right now, a 911 call is answered on average in six minutes, 39 seconds on Montreal Island, Carrière said.
In Pierrefonds-Roxboro, news of the fire station was welcomed by borough officials.
Although the borough had to provide the land, a $2-million piece of property, local councillor Bert Ward said, the new station is vital to the borough’s future growth as a safe and attractive place to live.
Thousands of new houses are expected to be built in western Pierrefonds in the coming years.
Ward said the borough’s master plan envisions 6,000 to 7,000 more housing units, although the plan has yet to be given the goahead by the city of Montreal’s executive committee and no promoters are signed on.
A key factor remains the turning of the 440 right-of-way owned by the provincial government into a new north-south urban boulevard, something that was promised by the former Liberal transport minister Pierre Moreau, Ward said.