City looks toward better fire stations
DANBURY — With an aging fire headquarters and the volunteer companies on the verge of consolidating, the city is exploring potential upgrades to the firehouses.
The $500,000 City Council approved to borrow last week will help the city do its “homework” to plan for improvements for the career and volunteer fire stations, including the 50-year-old fire headquarters, Mayor Joe Cavo said.
“We just want to be prepared for things we may have to do in order to
keep our firefighters with a safe roof over their heads while they’re in fire headquarters,” he said. “We also want to protect our investments, both with firefighters and equipment.”
The $500,000 is part of a $3 million borrowing package City Council approved last Thursday that includes $1.25 million in paving, road and drainage work, $450,000 to replace public services equipment,
$450,000 for underground storage tanks, and $350,000 to replace generators across the city.
The proposed $267 million budget includes an additional
$915,000 related to facilities and equipment upgrades for firefighters. That would go toward this planning, as well as equipment and the replacement of apparatuses.
Upgrades to all the firehouses are under consideration.
“We know that there is various improvements are needed in all of the fire department buildings,” David St. Hilaire, finance director, told City Council last Thursday. “It’s not just the headquarters.”
The fire headquarters has been updated since it was built in 1971, but it may be time for a new station, Cavo said.
“It’s well used because it gets used 24 hours a day,” he said. “Through the years, there have been upgrades and changes and additions and things that have happened to it, but it’s
50-years-old now.”
The city has studied the needs at the headquarters in the past, but would need an updated assessment, Cavo said. He expects a headquarters project to happen within five to
10 years.
The city would likely need to hire consultants to help with this preparation work, St. Hilaire said.
“We’ll do as much as we can in-house, as we always do,” he told City Council.
With the growth of the career fire department over the years, the city would also explore whether the fire headquarters is big enough.
“I’m certain that in ‘71 when they built that building, they never anticipated having the size of the career department they have today that’s housed just in that building alone,” Cavo said.
The logistics of building a new station may be challenging, he said. The city would need to find another property or demolish the existing building and construct a new one at that site.
“What do you do with everybody that’s in that building?” Cavo said. “What do you do with the equipment? That’s an issue in itself.”
The volunteer firehouses would not be an option because they are too small, he said. Fire headquarters has six drive-thru bays for equipment, with some of those bays fitting two pieces of equipment, Cavo said.
“There is nothing else like it in Danbury, nothing even close to it in Danbury,” he said.
Volunteers consolidate
A key part of this effort will be looking at the volunteer firehouses, some of which may be vacated in the future.
Three of the 12 volunteer companies are consolidating into one department, Battalion 19, while another four companies are joining to form Battalion 31, said Charlie Coakley, president of the Danbury Volunteer Firemen’s Council. Plans for the other five companies are still being worked out, he said.
The new battalions are exploring whether they need to add onto existing stations or build new ones to accommodate the multiple companies and equipment, he said. Some of the equipment may become spares that would be used if something broke down, he said.
The city and volunteer companies would need to work out who would cover the cost of a station project, Coakley said. All of Battalion 19’s stations are owned by the city, while two of the four Batallion 31 firehouses are owned by the volunteer companies, he said. The volunteer departments have yet to request any funding from the city, Cavo said.
In joining together, the companies can consolidate equipment and volunteers, with some departments having more members than others, he said.
“It really helps being able to respond and get out,” Coakley said. “We’re able to distribute the firefighters within the different companies and be able to get all the apparatus out.”
The consolidating companies already train and respond to calls together, although they haven’t completed all the paperwork to officially join together, Coakley said.
“It’s an intensive process,” he said.
Meanwhile, the city is searching for a new, permanent chief following the retirement of Chief T.J. Wiedl last summer. Mark Omasta served as acting chief until he retired in January and interim Chief Kevin Ford took over, with the goal of finding a permanent leader in six months.
Cavo said the city is on track to meet that deadline.
“We’re hoping that we’ll be pretty close to our original time frame,” he said.