Mar. 28—COLUMBUS GROVE — It took a few years, but the Columbus Grove-Pleasant Township Joint Fire District now has some room to breathe.

The department has moved into its new building at 209 E. Sycamore St. and will be holding an open house to show it off to the public from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, March 30. The new seven-bay facility was sorely needed, according to Assistant Chief Jeff Vance, as the department has outgrown its previous building on Main Street.

“The fire department had been thinking about this for several years,” he said. “With the size of the apparatus and stuff we have now, it was just tight. We were to the point where we couldn’t even open the doors up on the trucks and do stuff inside the building. We had to pull the trucks outside to get at everything.”

The idea for a new building was brought up several years ago, but after approaching an architectural firm to design one, the department learned that the building the firm submitted would cost more than $3 million to build, an estimate that put the project “on the back burner,” Vance said.

“That’s when Larry Clymer stepped in, a business owner here in town and a lifelong resident who was on the fire department and was on the village council for a while,” he said. “He came to me and said, ‘I would like to help construct a fire station, but I would like to use the guy that I’ve used to build my buildings to do it.'”

Vance told Clymer that the village would not be able to have any part in the process since a public project like this would require an open bidding process. Clymer then agreed to front the cost for the building with the village able to buy the buildng back after completion. As that process developed, the fire department changed into the Columbus Grove-Pleasant Township Joint Fire District, so the district, not the village, owns the building.

This process began before the COVID pandemic, Vance said, with a redesigned building estimated to cost $900,000. However, delays pushed the bond issue needed to procure the funds to buy the building back to the November 2022 ballot. This delay, coupled with supply chain issues and inflation, caused the cost to rise to $1.6 million.

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“So it’s taken a little longer than what we anticipated, for sure, to have it built,” Vance said “But we started in July of 2023 for the construction process. Some of it was supply issues, some of it was labor issues for the time it took to complete, but here we are. It’s done.”

The department currently has five out of its six vehicles housed in the new facility, so there is room for future growth, Vance said. The added room allows for

Jim Sullivan
The Daily News of Newburyport, Mass.
(TNS)

NEWBURYPORT — Two airlocks, a well-vented garage and a popular fitness room that’s become the envy of the department are just some of the highlights of the new John F. Cutter Jr. Fire Station, according to Newburyport Fire Chief Stephen Bradbury III.

Put into service early last November, the 6,600-square-foot Storey Avenue building has become a welcome addition to the three firefighters stationed there day and night, as well as those at the Fire Department headquarters on Greenleaf Street, Bradbury added.

“I couldn’t be happier with this building,” Bradbury said. “For a substation, they really hit it out of the park — firefighter safety, health and wellness as well as comfort. We fit everything in here that we wanted to.”

The new facility replaced the 51-year-old, 2,258-square-foot West End fire station that no longer met fire codes.

The $9.2 million building is dedicated to a complete separation of work and living environments. A pair of airlocks separate the roughly 2,200-square-foot garage that now houses Engines 1 and 2 from the rest of the station.

Each fire truck, according to Bradbury, is connected to a system of hoses that ventilates the exhaust, not within the building as it did before but outside.

Senior firefighter Bob Morse said that makes all the difference in the world.

“The ceiling here used to be black with soot,” he said. “I remember spending an entire summer, up on scaffolding, painting it white. We used to be breathing in diesel fumes all the time. Now, all the exhaust goes outside.”

The garage bay doors, Bradbury added, can also be opened remotely from Greenleaf Street.

“We’ve already done that a couple of times for mutual aid (from other departments),” he said.

The station’s dispatch office, according to Bradbury, could easily take over for the Greenleaf Street headquarters, if necessary.

“We would have to make some slight adjustments but we could take right over from there,” he said.

But the new fitness room, which includes a treadmill, StairMaster and plenty of free weights, has been the building’s biggest draw, according to Bradbury.

“That’s the star of the show,” he said. “It was designed by one of our dispatchers, Justin Burl who’s a personal trainer.”

Even though Wednesday was his day off, firefighter Casey David (who is stationed out of Greenleaf Street) was working out at the Cutter station.

“This gym is state of the art and it caters to our needs,” he said. “It really helps us get into better shape for what we need to do.”

A decontamination room is also featured in the building, along with a laundry room — separate lockers for turnout gear and street clothes — separate bunk rooms — as well as a trio of showers, (the Greenleaf Street headquarters only has one.)

The Milford (OH) Community Fire Department is located 20 miles east of downtown Cincinnati. It protects the city of Milford from a single fire and emergency medical services (EMS) station on Route 50 near Milford Parkway. The city of Milford is 3.45 square miles and has a population of 6,709 residents. The department covers Milford and parts of Clermont and Hamilton counties. The coverage area includes 35% commercial property, 35% residential, and 30% undeveloped.

District Chief Nick Thiele states, “Our response district covers an older business district dating back to 1800, with updates made to bring it up to today’s standards. We also have new condos, light industrial areas, and a lot of bed-and-breakfast-type structures, as well as strip shopping centers, a soccer team facility, schools, and four hotels. So, we really have a diverse area to deal with in our community.”

In August 2000, the department started looking into replacing an older pumper. The department keeps an eye on what big departments in other cities purchase to replace their apparatus. “We wanted something that was easy to maintain and operate, and would work in our response area,” Thiele said.

Thiele, who headed up the department’s apparatus replacement committee, says, “The department usually operates on replacing apparatus on a 20-year period. We wanted a new vehicle — not a used apparatus. Our decisions are based on, of course, not only our budget, but also on how an apparatus is holding up for our department.”

“Our department decided to go with an FDNY spec but with minor changes,” he said. “There were modifications made to the dashboard, so it mirrored our other pumpers, and the pump module was changed. There are also crosslays we went with and an FDNY low hosebed, as well. The low hosebed makes it a great deal easier for our firefighters on the fireground.”

The rig carries 200 feet of 1-inch booster line, 300 feet of 2½-inch suppression line from the rear, 1,500 feet of 3-inch supply line, three 200-foot 1¾-inch crosslays, two 10-foot sections of 4½-inch hard sleeves, and two 10-foot sections of 2½-inch hard sleeves. The rig also carries a 24-foot extension ladder, a 14-foot roof ladder, and a 10-foot folding attic ladder.

“Since we are a privately operated fire department, we didn’t have to go out to bid, so we were lucky to be able to go with Seagrave,” Thiele said. “Our department has dealt with Seagrave in the past with previous apparatus purchases, so we were familiar with the brand. This familiarity helped us with the FDNY specs on this pumper.”

The engine, E72, serves as the second-out engine for structure-related responses and motor vehicle accidents in the city. When the department is called upon for mutual aid with neighbor departments, E72 is the unit that responds.

The pumper was designed and equipped as a basic engine. However, it can be upfitted with advanced life support (ALS) and basic rescue equipment as necessary for first-out service when the pr

West Warwick Fire Station 2, damaged in March when a pumper snagged one side of it, has been repaired and the apparatus returned, the department said in a Facebook post Wednesday, Nov. 20.

“We are happy to announce that Engine 2 and Rescue 2 have returned to Station 2 at 834 Main Street in the Phenix section of town,” the department said.

A hydraulically-powered hatch on the side of the truck opened as it was responding to a call in March, turnto10.com reported.

As the pumper moved forward, it pulled on the building, yanking a post out of the ground, the report said. The accident forced West Warwick Station 2 out of service.

The overhead garage door also crashed down on the truck, but officials said it suffered little damage, according to the report.

A fire official said he was surprised at how long repairs took, but added that structural upgrades were needed to preserve the integrity of building, the report said.

The overhead door was made about two feet wider and a foot-and-a-half taller to provide more room for fire apparatus. And the building was given a new coat of paint.

The Franklin Fire Company in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania announced that it has been awarded $677,000 from the Local Share Account grant, the company said in a Facebook post Thursday, Oct. 24.

LSA grant money comes from the Pennsylvania Race Horse Development and Gaming Act.

Funds from this grant will be used toward the purchase of a new Pierce engine.

“We’d like to thank Senator Mastriano and his staff, Representative Kauffman and his staff, Franklin County Commissioners Office and their staff, Hamilton Township Supervisors and their staff, and the Commonwealth Financing Authority,” the company said in the post.