The newly-built Maplewood Fire & Rescue Centre on Dollarton Highway in the District of North Vancouver is an energy-efficient 48,000-square-foot facility that will soon house fire and emergency services, a training centre and administrative offices.
Indigenous art and energy-saving technologies help create a gem on Dollarton Highway
Part of a series on BC Hydro Clean Energy Champions: businesses, homes, and institutions – large and small – recognized for reducing their reliance on fossil fuels.
A state-of-the art fire hall and training centre that gives emergency response times and training top billing has risen from the site of what was a refuse dump for District of North Vancouver public works projects.
The Maplewood Fire & Rescue Centre is absolutely nothing like the dump or the fire department facilities it's replacing. It's a winning combination of beauty, brains, and function.
"It's stunning," says Nicola Chevallier, the District of North Van's general manager of engineering public works. "We sometimes get criticized for design, even when we build to a modern standard. But we've incorporated First Nations art in the glass bay doors, and with those doors you can see natural light inside. It's comfortable warm and requires minimal lighting."
The centre is also a quantum leap more efficient than the three aging facilities it's replacing: the fire station on Mountain Highway, an old fire training centre, and administration offices at the fire station on Lynn Valley Road. The new building is anticipated to have a 71% reduction in energy use and a 92% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to those old buildings.
- The District is leveraging solutions like daylighting through bay doors and other proven technologies to help reduce energy consumption. Solutions include heating and ventilation by heat recovery ventilator (with heating coil), and radiant in-slab heating.
- In the dormitory and administration office, heating and cooling by space-saving, quiet, and ductless fan coil units, and ventilation by centralized heat recovery ventilator.
- For domestic hot water, space heating and cooling, two air-source heat pumps with an electric boiler backup for when temperatures dip below -10° C.
- For electricity generation, a 13.5 kW solar panel array.
Chevallier says the decision to go all-electric was an easy one after the District of North Vancouver declared a climate emergency and came up with a community and energy emissions plan. To avoid the use of fossil fuels, the District prioritized minimizing the need for lighting, heating, and cooling by ensuring that the building's roof and walls were built to a higher insulation standard, while still letting in lots of natural light.
"We put a lot of thought into the envelope," says Chevallier. "As a first step, you want to reduce the energy that's needed before you electrify. So we put money into the envelope, and a lot of thought into the orientation of the building. The energy modelling was important, and that informed how the building was designed."
Key to making a more energy-efficient building that works well for crews and staff was enlisting an architect with experience in fire hall construction. "Everything is designed in a way that enhances response times," she says.
Simulated tugboat alongside hall trains crews for marine fires
A 'tugboat' constructed out of shipping containers has been built to help the fire department mimic what crews might experience when trying to douse a fire or rescue someone trapped on a boat.
Known as The Seaspan Responder, the three-story simulator features interior burn chambers including a simulated engine room and kitchen, stairways with hatches, and other gas, fire and smoke props.
A 13-5 kW solar panel array sits on the roof of the fire and rescue centre. Other efficiencies include two air-source heat pumps that provide domestic hot water, space heating and cooling.
'I think we will do all-electric buildings from now on'
The emergence of super-efficient electric technologies has dove-tailed nicely with the District of North Vancouver's energy emissions plan. It's making it easier to commit to buildings powered exclusively by clean electricity.
"I think we will always do all-electric buildings, as we have a policy to eliminate emissions and the use of fossil fuels in our buildings," says Chevallier, noting that the one exception at the Maplewood facility is an emergency backup diesel-fired generator. "Whenever we're doing replacements of gas-fired equipment, we always look to convert to electric."
Chevallier admits there were some concerns around the higher costs of energy with an all-electric building. But because the building uses such little energy, the operating costs remain low and the decision to go all electric made sense. She added that while the District's green building policy at the time was to build to a LEED Gold standard, they wanted to minimize energy use and emissions at the Maplewood Fire & Rescue Centre.
"We were quite deep into design when we began questioning if we had done enough," she says. "Our mechanical and electrical consultant ran 400 modeling iterations to identify improvements to glazing or energy systems we could make. While we made a few adjustments, we got to a point where any further changes would have required significant investment for only marginal gains."
Aside from energy efficiency, a key priority was designing the building to support crews in performing their jobs to the highest standard. They started moving in this past fall, and the centre is expected to be fully operational by the spring of 2025.
"The fire department is super excited," she says. "We needed to design it to prioritize response times and their health and safety, and they think it's a big step up from their existing facility."