It was nearly four years ago when the Shinimicas Fire Department was destroyed by fire, beginning a lengthy process resulting in construction of a new fire hall that will serve the district for years to come.
Construction of the department’s new home – just up Highway 6 from its old home – included the extensive use of wood products – something that is being celebrated by the Maritime Lumber Bureau and WoodWorks Atlantic.
Kevin Merriam, executive director of the Maritime Lumber Bureau, dropped into the Upper Nappan Service Centre on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2024, to thank the Municipality of Cumberland for committing to the use of wood in the construction project.
He said it will serve as a model for other municipalities across the region.
“This project can be a showcase for others to show what can be done with wood in small community fire halls,” Merriam said. “We like to showcase those projects and use projects such as the Shinimicas fire hall as a model.”
WoodWorks Atlantic is part of a national program overseen by the Canadian Wood Council. It’s a regional promotional program for building and construction using wood products – mostly in commercial and institutional projects and larger structures like bridges.
“We run programs to provide educational and technical services to inform those who would potentially use wood in their projects,” he said. “This project was the replacement of the Shinimicas fire hall. In the early stages we worked with the technical people about a wood structure.”
The Shinimicas project includes 71 cubic metres of wood that has a carbon benefit of 193 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide – the equivalent of taking 41 cars off the road for one year. Avoided greenhouse gas emissions are 132 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide.
“It’s a win-win situation in that is supports the use of local and regional wood products in construction and it’s a nice structure,” he said.
Merriam said concrete and steel are important parts of construction, but so is wood and the environmental benefits are tremendous in that it’s renewable while other elements are not.