Kincardine Fire and Emergency Services has been given permission to add a designated women’s washroom to their building, despite the fact that it deviates from accessibility design standards.
Station 12 needs to add an adequate washroom and shower facility for its female firefighters, but they have the building itself to contend with.
Acting Fire Chief Matt Cottrill explained, “The proposed washroom is limited in the physical footprint of the building, based on the building construction. The way it’s structured, on the one side is a load-supporting wall… and the other side is administrative offices and then a hallway, and it can’t impede on either one of those without affecting the operation of the building overall.”
He also said that when the request went before the Accessibility Advisory Committee, there were more options available, but some options had to be eliminated for potential designs for the proposed washroom and shower facility.
Specifically, one option would have taken space away from the existing male washroom.
“To divide it up into a smaller space, we would have actually lost stalls and occupancy. We wouldn’t have been able to meet building code for the number of individuals in the building if we tried to divvy it up.”
Council approved the motion to allow staff to construct the washroom that best fits its needs, even though it deviates from the Facility Accessibility Design Standards.
While the new washroom would not fit with all FADS guidelines, the washroom that is used by administrative staff within the building is within compliance.
KFES Station 12 hired their first female firefighter in 2021, the second started in 2023.
It was recognized prior to the 2021 hiring that changes to the washroom/shower facilities would need to be made to the building that was built in 1994.
