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17 April 2026
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Fire stations of the world: Victoria Fire Station No 1, Victoria, British Columbia
Victoria Fire Station No 1, also known as the Victoria Fire Department Headquarters, is the primary public safety facility in Victoria, British Columbia. In April 2023, the department moved from its long-time home on Yates Street to a modern, earthquake-resistant mixed-use development at 1025 Johnson Street. The new Fire Station No 1 is a significant building during emergencies and major natural disasters and an example of how emergency services can meet the urgent needs of today’s cities. The new station is part of the "Dalmatian Residences" development and serves several critical urban needs in a single footprint.
The Victoria Fire Station No 1 is a post-disaster relief building featuring a ground-floor firehall with a truck garage, firefighter offices, and residential units above. Excavation reached two storeys deep, with caissons and cores on sloping bedrock and shoring for adjacent structures. Using Thermal Integrity Profiling (TIP) testing, the team addressed Victoria's complex clay-over-bedrock conditions, enabling the safe, resilient foundation for this critical facility.
The new facility is part of a twelve-storey mixed-use development in Victoria’s rapidly developing downtown core. Fire and ambulance bays sit at street level, with an emergency operations centre and fire department headquarters on the second floor. The third floor consists of 16 500 sq ft of commercial office space, while 130 units of affordable rental housing make up the remaining floors.
By securing a large urban area in such a prominent downtown location, the fire department reduces response times and redundant services, while sparking new opportunities for the housing units. The building’s compact layout offers an 84% usable floor plate, which is considerably higher than many commercial residential projects (and well above the requirement of local housing agencies). This allowed to expand the social spaces, with the housing units offering outdoor gardens and a shared dog run and indoor connected common spaces to socialize with neighbours.
Highly sustainable and seismic ready
Unique in its ability to meet post-disaster seismic standards, HCMA designed the new fire hall around a symmetrical core layout—with one core serving the fire service and offices and the other serving the tenants in the residential units—both with separate entries. This efficiency extends to the building’s envelope and energy performance, where Step Code 3 is achieved through a smart stacking system and high levels of thermal performance.
Living above a fire hall
When talking about offices and housing above a fire hall, questions naturally arise over noise and activity causing disruption. Fortunately, this isn’t an issue. The technology used in today’s fire halls means that alerts come through less intrusive digital notification systems eg via cell phones and screens) rather than loud alarms, while the fire trucks don’t use their sirens within a couple of blocks because nearby traffic lights are programmed to turn green as soon as they leave the bay.
Recognising the experience of living above a fire hall is a unique scenario, HCMA wanted the design to celebrate this mix of spaces to promote civic pride. A well-lit, active street frontage allows people to see the activity happening inside the fire halls, making the new building feel open, transparent and inviting.
All public buildings have a role to play
It’s long been our belief that all public buildings play an important role in civic life, regardless of their size or purpose. While community centres and libraries offer a more obvious social benefit to the public, public safety buildings such as fire halls still have the potential to serve a broader public mandate. In the case of Victoria Fire Station No. 1, this is a public building that provides a critical day to day function for emergencies, along with vital housing and office space in a prominent downtown location.
Source: City of Victoria, HCMA, RYZUK
The Victoria Fire Station No 1 is a post-disaster relief building featuring a ground-floor firehall with a truck garage, firefighter offices, and residential units above. Excavation reached two storeys deep, with caissons and cores on sloping bedrock and shoring for adjacent structures. Using Thermal Integrity Profiling (TIP) testing, the team addressed Victoria's complex clay-over-bedrock conditions, enabling the safe, resilient foundation for this critical facility.
The new facility is part of a twelve-storey mixed-use development in Victoria’s rapidly developing downtown core. Fire and ambulance bays sit at street level, with an emergency operations centre and fire department headquarters on the second floor. The third floor consists of 16 500 sq ft of commercial office space, while 130 units of affordable rental housing make up the remaining floors.
By securing a large urban area in such a prominent downtown location, the fire department reduces response times and redundant services, while sparking new opportunities for the housing units. The building’s compact layout offers an 84% usable floor plate, which is considerably higher than many commercial residential projects (and well above the requirement of local housing agencies). This allowed to expand the social spaces, with the housing units offering outdoor gardens and a shared dog run and indoor connected common spaces to socialize with neighbours.
Highly sustainable and seismic ready
Unique in its ability to meet post-disaster seismic standards, HCMA designed the new fire hall around a symmetrical core layout—with one core serving the fire service and offices and the other serving the tenants in the residential units—both with separate entries. This efficiency extends to the building’s envelope and energy performance, where Step Code 3 is achieved through a smart stacking system and high levels of thermal performance.
Living above a fire hall
When talking about offices and housing above a fire hall, questions naturally arise over noise and activity causing disruption. Fortunately, this isn’t an issue. The technology used in today’s fire halls means that alerts come through less intrusive digital notification systems eg via cell phones and screens) rather than loud alarms, while the fire trucks don’t use their sirens within a couple of blocks because nearby traffic lights are programmed to turn green as soon as they leave the bay.
Recognising the experience of living above a fire hall is a unique scenario, HCMA wanted the design to celebrate this mix of spaces to promote civic pride. A well-lit, active street frontage allows people to see the activity happening inside the fire halls, making the new building feel open, transparent and inviting.
All public buildings have a role to play
It’s long been our belief that all public buildings play an important role in civic life, regardless of their size or purpose. While community centres and libraries offer a more obvious social benefit to the public, public safety buildings such as fire halls still have the potential to serve a broader public mandate. In the case of Victoria Fire Station No. 1, this is a public building that provides a critical day to day function for emergencies, along with vital housing and office space in a prominent downtown location.
Source: City of Victoria, HCMA, RYZUK
