Years ago, the local fire station was an integral part of the community. Youngsters would hang out, old men would chat with the firemen sitting outside the station and women would drop off cakes or cookies—a scene right out of a Norman Rockwell painting.
Times have changed since Rockwell painted and so have fire departments, fire stations and firefighters. Fire departments have a wide range of responsibilities, stations house more than fire trucks, and men and women are firefighters or EMS personnel.
In order to keep up with the changes, Firehouse asked several award-winning architects what trends they are seeing in their current career fire station projects. The top eight trends they offered follow:
1. Decontamination and personal wellness – No area in fire station design has greater concentration than on restricting contamination of toxins and carcinogens to firefighters. Significant changes in the approach to post-response, cleaning, and storage of exposed turnout gear and equipment, which was the focus of Paul Erickson, LeMay Erickson Willcox Architects, (Reston, VA), and Atlanta Chief William Pearson’s presentation at the 2016 Station Design Conference. Their suggestion is to design a fire station into three zones (red for "hot" or exposure; yellow for "transition" and "green" for safe-living areas) would heighten awareness and restrict on-duty personnel from dirty, off-gassing turnout gear.
Architects who responded agreed that fire chiefs, safety officers and public officials are taking the health of first responders more seriously. Designated decontamination areas and strict procedures, vehicle exhaust containment, and planning strategies that mitigate the risk of carcinogens and blood-borne pathogens from entering the living area and ultimately the human body must be introduced and maintained.
The fruits of research, funded by FEMA grants, support innovative ideas on how to keep first responders healthy, and include efforts like a cycle-sauna recently installed in a state-of-the-art fire station in Canada. Robert Manns, principal, Manns Woodward Studios, (White Marsh, MD), shared, “we’re currently working on a 42,000-square-foot headquarters facility in New Brunswick, NJ, that will include a medical grade sauna and stationary cycle to allow firefighters to sweat out the nasty stuff after returning from a call.”
Robert "Bob" Mitchell, Mitchell Architects also believes saunas in fire stations are a necessity versus the perception of luxury. Citing several reasons, including toxins and carcinogens showing up in the blood of responders, combustion particulates pass through turnout gear and skin ending up in fatty tissue, and the body smells like the fire for days after. He said the Latham, NY, Fire Department headquarters has had a sauna since 1985.
Cardiac arrest continues to be the number one killer of firefighters and a well-designed fire station can help curb those risks. Numerous studies identify chronic sleep as a cause of a general increase in health issues, musculoskeletal problems, higher body weights, a greater risk of sleep apnea, and heightened levels of cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Architects report seeing an increase in departments specifying single-occupant bunk rooms with adjustable alerting systems, with volume control and selector switches. An individual room with this type of alerting system allows the firefighter to set the alerting system to their assigned unit; if it is not toned, they are not unnecessarily alerted. If they are toned, the alerting system ramps up gradually with both lighting and audio over a short period of time, eliminating the shock to the human body of otherwise being suddenly woken up.
“This approach with bunk room design enables departments to ensure firefighters get better sleep, mitigates the risk of the spread of colds and flus, and solves the issue of gender neutrality,” said Manns. While it may be more expensive to build several individual rooms as opposed to one large room, architects agreed the cost is minuscule when compared to the long-term healthcare and legal costs associated with treating these issues.
2. Station security – Restriction to interior and exterior parking at fire stations is now critical. Most fire stations today use cards or key fobs for access control and high-resolution cameras to mitigate risks of theft and intrusion. The cameras allow personnel to control and identify who is entering the station and what areas are being accessed.
On the East Coast, Manns commented, “Sadly, we’re seeing security, access controls, and ballistic protection becoming more and more common in station design.” He added that urban areas are specifying ballistic glazing to protect firefighters from attacks where they are targeted simply because they wear a uniform. “One county we work with is now requiring all of their first responders to wear armor when on duty. This not only presents storage challenges, but also requires additional consideration for decontamination,” he said.
3. Non-LEED energy & resources conservation – According to Ken Newell, Stewart-Cooper-Newell Architects, (Gastonia, NC), LEED certification is not as popular on the East Coast and cost is only one factor. He said, “We are finding many clients are becoming less impressed with the results of the LEED process, seeing it as a “point-mongering” exercise, instead of having sustainability as its motivation.” Newell offered that many clients are opting for using “non-certified” sustainable practices that are truly verifiable in their yearly costs and bottom line. Also, many who are not committed to LEED at all simply are convinced in using things like LED lights and mini-split HVAC systems.
On the West Coast, Mary McGrath, Mary McGrath Architects, (Oakland, CA), says they are seeing more shared offices, with less square footage dedicated to office functions. McGrath said, “There is a trend away from a private captain's office and a firefighter work area to a 'station office" that can be used by all staff.” She added, “In addition, all of the stations have Wi-Fi and many of the office support functions are being done via laptop in the dining area or day room.”
4. Increased gender separation – Initially driven by the introduction of women firefighters to departments, individual sleeping rooms have increased in popularity across the nation, with many including a small desk and being used for study areas. More females are entering the profession, but lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues are also becoming prominent and departments recognize the benefits of providing privacy in sleep and toilet/shower facilities to satisfy all preferences.
Concerns have been raised about the movement away from dorms or shared rooms and communal-living arrangements and about increasing mental health issues. The questions asked if isolation via individual rooms contributes to the increasing number of firefighter depression and suicides. We consulted with psychologist Dr. Richard Gist, PhD, assistant to the fire chief, Kansas City, MO, and he concurred while communal living does make it hard for individuals to retreat, one symptom of depression is to seek isolation.
“In the end, it creates more responsibility for officers and co-workers to be attending to these things,” Gist offered and added that the isolation in the stations takes away a certain element of forced-accommodation, but takes away the communication too. Fire departments today are hiring people with different skills and a very diverse generation from 10 years ago, even five years ago. Internet and social media is more of a driving force and decreases the opportunity for critical communication in fire stations.
Again on the West Coast, McGrath finds many new fire stations include private bedrooms with private bathrooms and some departments feel that the bathrooms have to be in-suite.
McGrath said, “The driver for this arrangement used to be the introduction of women firefighters but now it is to provide privacy for all firefighters.”
5. Increased physical training space and immediate outside access for CrossFit – Physical fitness rooms have increased in size to not only allow all extensive fitness equipment, but floor space for core-body workouts. In addition, heavier flooring is required to accommodate new CrossFit training. One wall of glass continues to be vital and is not for decorative purposes, but a safety feature of visibility in case of an accident or illness while exercising.
6. Durable materials and systems for better life-cycle costs - The investment in a new public safety facility, whether small town or metropolitan, demands sustainability with an emphasis on long-lasting construction and the use of concrete/masonry walls and steel framing systems in place of wood construction.
“Even if it means building a smaller station by giving up a third reserve-bay or an extra sleeping room,” said McGrath. “Many chiefs' are seeing that the stations built in the '70s, '80s and '90s of wood construction are not lasting like those building in the '40s of concrete and masonry. They also see that it is really difficult to raise the funds to replace or repair stations, so emphasizing durability with the knowledge that they have to last up to 75 years.”
Besides lasting many decades, departments today focus on flexibility in design. Designs include non-load bearing walls where flexibility would allow changes as the fire service evolves. This main flexibility is being designed into office/public areas, sleeping room configuration and in apparatus support areas.
7. Increasing in-house training props – “Every day is a training day” is an adage that has become more critical and to that end, convenience is key in today’s fire departments. Over the past 20 years, designing training inside or around the exterior of a new station has become innovative and increasingly advanced.
Bob Mitchell points out that this is not a new idea, however, a new aspect has evolved–the necessity to be able to train without vacating the station, leaving the “first-due” response area unprotected.
“Keeping the company proficiently trained and available for response is a dilemma many fire departments face,” said Mitchell. “The unavailability of free, on-duty staff-hours in sufficient quantity or the necessity to pay overtime for personnel to train outside of normal duty hours places additional constraints on training programs and budgets alike. Integrated training features help to manage both of these aspects.”
Mitchell noted that FDNY responds to roughly 500,000 calls a year out of 217 stations. “This is an average of one call every 2 hours, 24/7, so leaving the station to train during normal shift hours in not practical and certainly not unique to New York City,” he said. “The Hyannis, MA, department responds on average every 90 minutes.”
Previously, hose-drying towers were the focal point of every fire station, but currently, re-designed and improved for multi-story training scenarios. Below-grade and confined space training can be done without leaving the station. Mezzanine’s provide additional options for rappelling and rescue work.
8. Renovations - During the judging of the 2015 Station Design Awards, judges applauded efforts in the renovation category efforts to incorporate the old style with the new addition. These trends may be area-specific, but this is what we are seeing in metro departments on the West Coast. There is not as much suburban sprawl so the emphasis is on urban infill which ties up the property and is increasing the call load at the center of these cities. There are only a few cities for which we are still seeing new suburban career stations and these are mostly in the Sacramento Valley or other areas where large residential suburban developments are still occurring.
On the West Coast, McGrath sees a substantial number of fire station renovation projects for stations built in the '40s and '50s. The project focus is to renovate the sleeping quarters and bathrooms to allow private quarters and fitness rooms.
“These are occurring in mostly metropolitan departments where the stations are well located for response times and the bay space is adequate to support the station companies,” she said.
In the prior decades, many similar departments were able to pass large bond measures that allowed them to replace these stations. However, the ability to secure larger pieces of property in urban areas and the ability to raise this type of funding are both more difficult these days.
One other type of renovation that is occurring, according to Mitchell, are the numerous retail facilities built in the past 50 years sitting vacant. “We are currently working with a client to convert a 1970s vintage, free-standing supermarket into a fire station with attached commercial space, and converting a portion of its vast parking lot into public greenspace,” he said. “One goal of the project is to reconstruct the neighborhood fabric that was gutted by the ill-conceived ‘urban renewal’ project.”
What new trends will we see in the 2016 Station Design Awards? Watch for the November issue of Firehouse, featuring the 2016 Station Design Awards, to see the latest.
JANET WILMOTH grew up in a family of firefighters in a suburb of Chicago. Wilmoth, owner of Wilmoth Associates, worked with Fire Chief magazine for 27 years until it closed in 2013. She is currently a Project Director for Firehouse/SouthComm. Wilmoth currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Fire Emergency Manufacturers & Services Association and lives in Lisle, IL
