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FIRESTATIONDESIGN.COM

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WHO ARE WE?


WE’RE PRESENTING AT THE
2024 STATION DESIGN CONFERENCE!

THE NET ZERO FIRE STATION: THE FUTURE IS HERE

Presented by Dayna Lake and Mike Scott 

WHAT IS AN OWNER’S REPRESENTATIVE: SOLUTIONS FOR SUCCESS

Mike Scott presenting alongside VANIR 

See all conference sessions



TOP FIVE PITFALLS TO AVOID WHEN PLANNING FOR A NEW FIRE STATION

As part of an ongoing discussion regarding fire station construction, Mike
Scott, LEED AP (RRM Manager of Architecture and the project manager on most of
RRM’s public safety projects), presents some common pitfalls that he has seen
befall public safety projects.

 * SITE PITFALLS
 * DECONTAMINATION PITFALLS
 * SPACE PROGRAMMING PITFALLS
 * LAYOUT PITFALLS

 * Consider all circulation possibilities: Fire station site layout is driven
   primarily by the circulation of the apparatus. One of the primary pitfalls to
   avoid is to make sure your site is large enough to accommodate circulation
   for a full drive-through station.
 * Remember to investigate utility access: Make sure utilities are within
   workable distance. We have worked on projects that found out too late that
   sewer mains were hundreds of feet from the station…which added significant
   cost to the project. Sewer, water, gas, electric, communications – all are
   relevant access points that need to be known before significant progress can
   be made.
 * Make sure that your response from your front apron enters a safe and
   controlled roadway: Signalization can help, but proper location of egress is
   the first design consideration. Line of sight from adjacent corners and
   drives must be considered. Make sure that equipment is not exiting onto a
   busy street.
 * Understand potential environmental impacts to your project timeline: Make
   sure environmental investigations are completed early, such as avoiding
   waterways and biological habitats. Not only can these limit site availability
   greatly, but studies for certain species can only be done at certain times of
   the year, and can easily add a year to your project schedule.
 * Terrain considerations: Excessive slopes on sites can be mitigated, however,
   at great cost.
 * Soils: Understanding the soils in the area can help avoid excessively large
   foundation systems. In a recent example, a fire station built on fill
   necessitated multiple 25 ft deep concrete caissons, increasing the
   construction costs greatly.

Firefighters have a significantly higher rate of developing cancer. RRM focuses
on designing fire stations with every means possible for the building to protect
the life of the firefighters. We call this system “Design4Life”. Several key
considerations are:

 * Protection from exhaust: Vehicle exhaust in the apparatus bay is mitigated by
   whole-house, filter, and tailpipe extraction systems. In addition, a
   positive-pressure vestibule airlock with two doors stops any airflow from the
   apparatus bay to the fire station house.
 * Separation from contaminants: Turnouts are stored as far from the living
   quarters as possible to protect firefighters from off-gassing from harmful
   contaminants. Separate washing facilities for contaminated tools and
   materials are located as far as possible from living area. An example would
   be separate washers/dryers for contaminated rags from truck washing.
 * Turnout decontamination: This refers to a process of decontaminating
   equipment and turnout gear that starts at the rear apron before entering the
   station, and utilizes a special decontamination room entered from the
   exterior as the entry to the turnout cleaning area of the station.
 * Protective materials: Materials such as carpet have been eliminated from
   recently-designed fire houses, as they store contaminates tracked in on the
   firefighters boots. Hard, cleanable surfaces have replaced these to maintain
   health and safety in the living quarters of the station.
 * At-incident decontamination process: Though this is not specific to building
   design, a fire department’s procedure of decontamination at the site prior to
   entering the fire truck for the return back to the station is the first line
   of defense.

A fire station is truly unlike any other building. There are special spaces
needed for fire operations that will rarely be found in other structures, and
these merit special consideration.

 * Location of Apparatus: Design of a fire station should be centered around the
   circulation of the apparatus into and out of the apparatus bay. Layout of the
   apparatus within the bay determines first-out vehicles, drive-through
   capability, and ability for vehicle stacking in support bays. Safety of
   response and support needs of the fire apparatus should guide apparatus bay
   location and considerations. Vehicle exhaust extraction methods are a primary
   consideration, and should be decided early.
 * Location of Extractors: Washer extractors for cleaning should be located near
   the PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) storage area. Accommodations should
   be made for rear maintenance access and trough drains to extractor
   functioning. Proximity to exterior access may be a consideration if other
   stations utilize this extractor.
 * Location of SCBA: Some stations house an SCBA system, while other stations
   may only store bottles that were filled elsewhere. The SCBA system should be
   in a ventilated room away from the apparatus bay with enough clearances to
   maintenance access panels and adequate bottle storage. If other stations
   utilize this SCBA system for air fill, additional bottle storage may be
   required. Additional bottle storage and access may be required. The
   compressor should be placed away from the living quarters to avoid noise
   transmittance.
 * Sleeping Quarters and Restroom Privacy: Fire stations have traditionally had
   large open dormitory areas with shared restroom facilities. However, today’s
   fire departments require a higher level of privacy as more and more women are
   becoming firefighters. A proven configuration to provide privacy for sleeping
   and private restrooms is to design multiple single-accommodation sleeping
   rooms off of a private hallway. This hallway should also contain multiple
   single accommodation shower/restroom facilities. If these restrooms are
   directly off the private hallway, a modesty policy for that hallway should be
   in place for firefighter attire, and the restrooms may be placed one for
   every two bunkers.
 * Future Expansion Needs: Station layouts may be designed in such a way to
   allow a station to grow from one company to multiple companies. When this is
   anticipated, bunk rooms and private hallways should be arranged to either be
   extended or duplicated extending from the living area. Placement of the
   apparatus support areas and structural accommodations to the apparatus bays
   can allow future added apparatus bays. Site area around the fire station
   should be planned at the conceptual level to allow this to occur. This will
   result in cost savings once expansion has begun.

 

 

 * Response Time: The layout of a fire station should be set up such that
   firefighters have a minimal distance to travel to the front of the apparatus
   bay where the first engines are located from both the sleeping quarters and
   the kitchen/dining/day room area.
 * Public to Private Separation: A fire station should be organized such that
   there is a progressive transition from public areas to semi-private areas to
   very private areas. This can be accomplished by placing the administrative
   office near the lobby with a secured door. As visitors enter the station from
   the lobby, they should first encounter the living areas as transitional
   semi-private space, allowing the sleeping quarters to be the most private and
   furthest from public areas.
 * Visibility Protection of Living Area: Visibility to the kitchen/dining/day
   room should be screened from the exterior front of the station to avoid
   members of the community observing fire personnel when off-duty. The
   community should see firefighters in action in the apparatus bay and not
   during off-duty relaxation.
 * Noise Protection: Great consideration should be giving to firefighters’
   sleeping quarters. Avoiding immediate adjacency to the kitchen/day
   room/exercise room will help minimize interior disruptions of firefighters
   while sleeping. Bunk rooms should also avoid immediate proximity to busy
   roads. Firefighters can be called at any time of the night, and should have
   their rest protected when they can get it.
 * Exercise Area: Exercise areas should be located on the house side of the fire
   station whenever possible to avoid the need to cross potential areas of
   contamination such as the app bay. To allow firefighters good ventilation and
   additional space for exercise, several doors or roll-up doors should be
   provided to an exterior exercise patio.
 * Decon Process: When firefighters return from a call, there is often a level
   of decontamination that is necessary before entering the station. It is
   optimal to have an exterior door from the rear apron enter the
   decontamination room to allow firefighters to perform the cleaning process
   prior to entering the apparatus bay. PPE (Personal Protective Equipment)
   washing should be immediately adjacent to the decontamination room prior to
   entering the PPE storage area or the apparatus bay. This provides a
   progression in the decontamination process as the station is being entered.
 * Vestibule Placement: The apparatus bay and support areas are considered a hot
   zone with contaminants. The living and sleeping quarters is the safe or green
   zone that are to be protected from those contaminants. A vestibule is to
   placed between the hot zone and the green zone. It is recommended that this
   vestibule have two doors and the mechanical system for the station be
   designed to maintain a positive air pressure flow from the green zone through
   the yellow zone vestibule toward the hot zone. Before entering the vestibule
   from the apparatus bay, a hand washing sink shall be located next to each
   door. Additional boot wash stations or boot changing areas are recommended to
   be part of this vestibule.

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