Residents of West Vancouver have been left without an ambulance station in their community after the existing facility became so dilapidated it was shut down.
From the outside, Station 255, located on Fulton Avenue just a block from City Hall, looks like a small, rundown house.
On the inside, the decay has reached a dangerous state. Global News has learned rot and mould have made the building uninhabitable.
That’s left the community of more than 45,000 people without a base for its paramedics for months.
Crews have been based out of Lions Gate Hospital in neighbouring North Vancouver, 10 kilometres away, since December — raising concerns about service wait times.
West Vancouver Mayor Mark Sager said the municipality is the property’s landlord, but that maintaining the building is the provincial government’s responsibility.
He said no one from BC Emergency Health Services raised concerns until recently.
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“I can’t imagine how this wasn’t dealt with the moment they saw an issue,” he told Global News.
“I am asking council to have the building torn down as quickly as possible. It’s not repairable.”
West Vancouver has secured a nearby building for crews, he said, but no paperwork has been signed so far.
“In the meantime, we have invited them to use our fire hall … and I understand they have been doing that a little bit, but we want an ambulance station in West Van and we want people well taken care of.”
What remains unclear is how the situation got to this point.
Global News submitted multiple requests for comment to BC Emergency Health Services over several days but has yet to receive a response.
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