WI Firefighters Excited to Open New Station

July 05 -- Before moving forward with plans for a new fire station, a committee comprising Eau Claire Fire Department line personnel and management toured facilities in Wisconsin and Minnesota to pick out the best features of each.

Battalion Chief Joe Kelly, the department’s lead on the project, is pleased with the end result.

“I can’t say enough about the contractors, the designers, the crew who worked on this project,” Kelly said Tuesday during a tour of the new north side station. “They have done a good job for us.”

The red-brick building, which replaces the department’s Station 10, is nestled in a wooded area on Malden Avenue, less than a mile east of the existing station at Birch Street and North Hastings Way.

The project is on time and under budget, two things Kelly and Fire Chief Chris Bell are proud of. Keys to the building are expected to be turned over to the department Friday.

According to the city’s finance office, $4.86 million of a project budgeted at $4.99 million has been spent.

Station 10, built in 1949, was the second oldest of the city’s six fire stations, and according to city officials, the station had outlived its life. Seventy-seven years separate the city’s new Station 10 and its oldest station, Station 2, 216 S. Dewey St., which was built in 1941. Station 8, 3510 Starr Ave., was built in 1969; Station 5, 2500 Patton St., 1974; Station 6, 3020 Golf Road, 1986; and Station 9, 3611 Campus Road, 1999.

Crews began moving equipment into the new Station 10 on Monday, and firefighters assigned to Station 10 are expected to occupy the building on July 12, Kelly said.

Kelly, who has an associate degree in architectural design, showed off the new station Tuesday. Some of the highlights:

The city bought the site of the new station — an old dump — for $265,000. When the first tree was cut for the project last fall, its roots brought up the engine block of a Model T, Kelly said. The rest of the car was found as the site was excavated.

The station, which totals about 18,000 square feet, according to contractor Market & Johnson, has five bays behind large red, glass doors — with 280 panes of glass. Each bay is accessible from the front and rear of the building, meaning an ambulance or truck returning to the station can pull behind the building and drive into the appropriate bay — rather than having to back in as crews do at the old station.

The station will house an assortment of equipment, including an engine, a reserve engine, an ambulance, a reserve ambulance, a utility truck with a boat behind it, a brush truck and a HAZMAT trailer.

A display case has been included inside the station’s entrance. Inside it, a historic fire bell from the city’s first fire station that used to hang on City Hall’s front lawn will be housed. In the 1800s, the bell was used to alert firefighters to fires, signaled the start of municipal meetings and was used in community celebrations.

The new station includes six bathrooms — two public, two in the dormitory and two in an area specifically for decontamination; a watch office with storage off of it; a kitchen; a day room — essentially the on-duty crew’s living room — with a TV and five easy chairs; an exercise room, which can be used by all department employees; and a room solely for training. Kelly is excited about the latter. The department also has training room at Station 9, but that room also is used for other purposes.

The legs on the table planned for the station’s kitchen will be made out of one or both of the fire poles at existing Station 10. If both poles aren’t needed for the project, Kelly said, the plan is to honor a request from the Children’s Museum of Eau Claire for a pole. He also is hoping an additional portion could be placed on display at the new station.

The dormitory includes six individual bedrooms — five for the station’s regular crew and one for an intern. (The department also has space for an intern at Station 9.) Each bedroom has a new twin bed, and all but the intern’s room have lockers accessible from the hall and each bedroom. The station officer’s room also has a desk. “Nothing at Station 10 has been replaced for years in anticipation of the new station,” said Kelly, noting materials and furnishing for the new building, if possible, were bought locally.

The decontamination area, which has its own ventilation system, is located right of the garage bays. Turnout gear, donned before hopping on an engine, will be stored there. Also, when firefighters return from a fire, they can leave their turnout gear in that area, where their pants and coats can be washed in a specialty washing machine. (There is a separate washer and dryer to wash bedding.)

This area also contains two bathrooms with showers, including steam showers aimed at removing hazardous materials from firefighters’ bodies.

“We are trying to protect our firefighters,” said Kelly, noting six active members of the department have been diagnosed with cancer in recent years. One of them, Denise Waterman, died in 2014.

Cancer is the second leading cause of deaths among firefighters today, following cardiovascular disease, according to the Firefighter Cancer Alliance.

“Cancer deaths among members of the fire service have risen dramatically over the last 20 years, in tandem with the increasing toxicity of modern fires, due to the proliferation of synthetic products and plastics, and other toxic chemicals that release carcinogenic byproducts when burned,” according to the FCA.

The new station doesn’t include a ghost, like the existing station purportedly does. They call him Alex, named after former firefighter Alex Blum, who died in 1981 at age 77. He spent some of his 30 years with the Fire Department at Station 10.

“When (firefighters) leave Station 10, they will invite him to join them,” Kelly said with a chuckle. “If he wants to come, he will. If he wants to stay, he will.”

___ (c)2018 the Leader-Telegram (Eau Claire, Wis.) Visit the Leader-Telegram (Eau Claire, Wis.) at www.leadertelegram.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.