New year, new fire station for Vaughan

Fire station 7-4 is the city's 10th and brings emergency services closer to Kleinburg, writes fire Chief Deryn Rizzi

Yorkregion.com
Jan. 13, 2020
Deryn Rizzi

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable holiday. It’s the start of 2020, and I’m proud to announce the opening of a new fire station. Located at 835 Nashville Rd. (Nashville Road and Huntington Road), Fire Station 7-4 is Vaughan’s 10th station, and it brings vital emergency services closer to home for the Kleinburg community.

At approximately 10,250 square feet, this state-of-the-art building has three drive-through bays and living quarters for the crew on shift, and meets current Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) standards. Designed with LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) silver certification standards, there are many energy-saving features, including water-conserving plumbing fixtures, high-performance windows and direct/indirect lighting with occupancy sensors.

Most of all, the station reflects this historic area and continues the strong tradition of firefighting that was fuelled by the dedicated men and women of the Kleinburg-Nashville Volunteer Fire Brigade. This group of volunteer firefighters formed in 1966 after members of the community advocated for Kleinburg to have its own fire hall.

The original station 7-4, which opened in January 1968, was located at 10665 Islington Ave. and consisted of two bays, a hose drying tower and a washroom. The team of 20 responded to calls bounded by King-Vaughan to the north, Highway 400 to the east, Rutherford Road to the south, and Highway 50 and Caledon King Townline to the west.

Throughout the years, the station became a place where people could gain hands-on experience and train for full-time firefighting positions. What remained the same was the connection to the community as the volunteers participated in many local events and fundraising activities.

The station on Islington Avenue was decommissioned on Dec. 31, 2013 as plans were made to build a new station that could accommodate new models of fire trucks and a full-time staff to provide efficient emergency response to the growing population of Kleinburg. In April 2018, the city broke ground on the new station, and today, it is fully operational.

This new fire station reflects the city of Vaughan’s commitment to service excellence and environmental stewardship. Having station 7-4 operational today, continues the city goal of improving services to meet the needs of our growing community. This new fire station will enhance our efforts to bring emergency services closer to families, institutions and businesses in this area. I am proud of the firefighters of the Vaughan fire and rescue service team, who not only respond to emergencies, but remain active members of this community through outreach initiatives and fire safety education.

I invite you to join the celebration of the station’s grand opening on Wednesday, Jan. 22 at 2 p.m. For more information, visit vaughan.ca/events.