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Comment by Steven on December 8, 2009 at 12:59pm

How small is the township? Most of the newer rural fire houses around here also include community rooms that can be turned into sanctuary during disasters, long term power outages, and the like.

You need a needs assessment. What does your department need, what does the community need? You back that up with the kinds of things Thomas mentioned. Bays must be at least big enough to allow plenty of room around apparatus for safety reasons. You should have some kind of exhaust ventilation. An extra bay for maintenance or to store future equipment or a drill space. A system for drying hose. Offices spaces for your chief/officers/business affairs/secretary/etc. Training room. Laundry room for washing turnout gear, extends the longevity of the gear. A laundry room can also double as storage for EMS supplies or contain spare/unused gear, equipment, material. A communications/radio room. And these days, it all has to meet federal and state ADA codes for handicap accessibility.

If you hired an architect, he/she/they should have designed firehouses before and know what is required, what's been done for other departments. Get all your ducks in order and present it all to the board. Don't be extravagant, but don't cheat yourselves either. Don't cut corners thinking you can wash the hose outside all the time or one office will do for everything outside of firematics. You'll regret it for as long as you have that station.

Tour other fire stations in the area, take note of what they have, what they like, what they which they had and why.

Comment by THOMAS on December 7, 2009 at 8:08pm

You need a
climate controlled room for storage of equipment?
Training room
how many bays
one maintenance bay,washing hose ECT
crew lounge
kitchen
two restrooms
minium of three offices
if you need any other info just drop me an E-Mail
sharplesvfd500@yahoo.com

Bays should be 15 ft wide and as long as your trucks + 5 ft in front and 5ft in the rear for safety reasons.

Comment by graham purvis on December 6, 2009 at 9:48pm

sorrya about the spelling
we need the station in the worst way