As of today, Havelte has a brand new fire station. The municipality of Westerveld has allocated 1.7 million euros for this. The new accommodation was desperately needed.
“Fire service is extremely important in a vast municipality such as the municipality of Westerveld,” says Mayor Jouke Spoelstra. “That has to do with the built areas such as a village or a street where something can happen, but it also has to do with the many nature reserves around us and wildfires are unfortunately more topical than ever.”
It had been known for several years that the firefighters needed a new station. According to Gerco de Groot, post commander in Havelte, the old barracks had already been rejected from a health and safety point of view more than fifteen years ago. For example, firefighters stood within two meters behind the vehicles, changing in the exhaust fumes. A separate changing room has now been created for this.
There was also no place to wash plates and crockery, for example, even though the fire brigade in Havelte takes care of the logistics for many units. “So if there is a big fire and food needs to be delivered, we will bring it. But then we would be in the shower cleaning the plates,” laughs De Groot. “Now we have a real cleaning corner for that kind of thing. That was certainly not of this time, but it was also not of this time in the past.”
The barracks have been rebuilt on the spot where the previous barracks stood. Jurjen Timmerman of the Drenthe Safety Region is happy with this. “We operate fire stations with volunteers in almost all places in Drenthe. That is why there is a lot of solidarity and we are grateful that the barracks can remain in the middle of the village. This is not a shed, this is a house. The fire brigade is a family.”
The new barracks are a bit larger than the previous one, so that all vehicles can be parked inside. That is also for a reason. “It’s really not funny if you leave at two o’clock in the morning and you have to scratch the windows first,” says De Groot. Spoelstra goes one step further and points out the time that is also lost.
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