After 34 years of operation, the Canadian Fire Fighters Museum in Port Hope won’t be opening this year.
Normally open from May to October, the non-profit museum at 95 Mill Street South has been forced to close as the current site is located on land contaminated by low-level radioactive waste.
Under the Port Hope Area Initiative, the federal government is spending $1.28 billion over 10 years to clean up waste produced between 1933 and 1988 from uranium and radium refining operations of former Crown corporation Eldorado Nuclear Ltd. There are two projects in the initiative, one in Port Hope and the other in Clarington. The Port Hope Project will clean up 1.2 million cubic metres of waste.
The museum thought it had until December 2018, the originally scheduled date for the Port Hope project clean-up operations, to find a new location.
However, the waste excavation and removal for the Port Hope waterfront sites — including West Beach, Mill Street South, and the CN/CP viaducts areas — is now commencing this spring.
Since opening in 1984, the museum has been located in an unheated quonset hut at the former Port Hope town sheds, which were donated by the Municipality of Port Hope for the museum’s use.
The museum houses a collection of historic artifacts that tell the story of role that firefighters have played in the lives of communities across Canada. The collection includes vintage fire trucks, hand-drawn and horse-drawn equipment, antique uniforms and helmets, fire hydrants and fire-related signage, safety equipment, toys, and more.
The museum attracts around 5,000 visitors a year.
Will Lambert, chair of the museum’s board of directors, says the museum has been seeking a new and larger location for the past two years.
Museum officials were negotiating with the owners of the former Canadian Tire building on Robertson Street, but the owners ended up selling the building to someone else last summer.
“We thought if we moved into Canadian Tire we would have had three times the space to show more things in a better way,” Lambert says in an interview with CBC Toronto. “We thought we could be looking at 15,000 visitors in our first year.”
Then the museum learned of the accelerated waste clean-up schedule. Since December, volunteers have been moving artifacts from the museum’s collection into temporary storage spaces across Port Hope, including municipal buildings.
The museum hopes to find a new location in Port Hope or elsewhere in Northumberland County in the next two years.
The museum, whose operation is funded on donations and gift shop revenue, will run a fundraising campaign if it finds a suitable location.
Until March 29th, the museum is running an online fundraising auction of surplus items, including duplicate artifacts, office equipment, and other items they don’t want to put into storage.
While the museum looks for a new location, you can still view the collection through a virtual tour at the museum’s website at www.firemuseumcanada.com.
