The Dunedin Fire Brigade Restoration Society is facing a big challenge as it will lose its Green Island storage facility because of expansion at the Otago Settlers Museum.
The first phase of construction of the museum's $8.6 million climate-controlled storage building starts this month, with the twin-level facility due to be completed in October next year.
The new storage building, part of the museum's planned $35 million redevelopment, will provide greatly improved climate-controlled protection for the museum's artefacts, including five old fire engines restored by the society and now part of the museum collections.
From February 2011, the storage building at Green Island - which has been jointly used by the society for more than a decade for fire engine storage and restoration purposes, and by the museum to store artefacts - will no longer be available.
"We're keen, more than anything, to be part of Dunedin's history," society president Paul Clements said.
On September 17, Mr Clements and two society members will dress in historic firefighter uniforms and drive into central Dunedin in a 1935 V8 fire engine, before making their case for city council help at a council community forum, which starts at 2pm.
Mr Clements said the society was seeking the use of an area of council-owned land where it could either build a suitable display and storage building at the society's cost, or to redevelop an existing building to suit its needs, which include the further restoration of fire engines.
In a perfect world, the site would be available by next June, to allow all building preparations to be completed by February 2011.
The site ideally would be located within the city area and would not require extensive travel for public access, Mr Clements said.
The society, which was set up in 1994, wanted to maintain its close links with the settlers museum, and was also keen to be able to display historic fire engines from the society's collection for the public to enjoy.
