Fire and Emergency celebrates Canterbury station openings

Fire and Emergency is celebrating the completion of its post-earthquake reconstruction programme in Christchurch this week, officially opening both the flagship Christchurch City Fire Station and the Sumner Fire Station.

Both stations were built on existing sites following the demolition of the original stations that were extensively damaged in the earthquake sequence of 2010-11. Most of the funding for both rebuilds came from the Government’s Covid Response and Recovery Fund.

The new Christchurch City Station was opened today by Internal Affairs Minister Hon. Barbara Edmonds. It has been built on the site of the original facility in Kilmore St. The total cost was $14.07 million, which included demolition of the original station along with ground remediating works. The Government’s Covid Response and Recovery Fund contribution for this project was $11.2 million.

Work was completed last year, enabling firefighters to move out of the temporary fire station in Lichfield St and occupy their new quarters.

Minister Edmonds paid tribute to the firefighters who had worked from temporary facilities under less-than-ideal conditions for several years. "Your patience has paid off with the development of this new facility and the Government is very pleased to have been able to help make it a reality."

The new fire station includes four appliance bays, decontamination and storage areas, operational work areas, facilities for filling breathing apparatus plus training and meeting rooms. There are 12 bedrooms for firefighters on night shift along with kitchen, mess and lounge facilities.

The new Sumner Fire Station is being opened tomorrow morning (Saturday 6 May). It too is a completely new building, replacing the original facility that was extensively damaged in the earthquakes. Fire and Emergency bought land next door to the original site, to enable a larger station to be built, serving the needs of the Sumner community.

The Sumner Volunteer Fire Brigade moved into temporary quarters while their former station was demolished and the new two-bay station was built. $2.9 million of the total $4.52 million cost was met by the Covid Response and Recovery Fund.