By Alan M. Petrillo

Chandler, Arizona, a growing city in the center of the state and part of the Phoenix metropolitan area, has enjoyed enormous growth in population, housing, commercial activity, and industrial facilities that continues to this day. The Chandler Fire, Health and Medical Department has grown along with the city, currently having 214 paid firefighters and 20 civilian staff working out of 11 stations to cover a population of 260,000 in the city's 71.5 square miles.

Chandler Station 2811 has three 84-foot long, drive-through, double-deep apparatus bays.

Chandler Fire Station No. 2811 is the department's newest, designed by Breckenridge Group Architects Planners, and built on the premise of having an extremely functional workspace that provided room for growth in the future.

The rear of Chandler's Station 2811 has an outdoor patio, grilling and eating area.

"We wanted to get as much operational impact as we could from the station, and also have enough space to add more apparatus in the future," says Keith Hargis, Chandler's assistant chief of the Administration and Emergency Management Division. Chandler Fire runs 13 front line engines, two aerial ladders, two water tenders, an air light unit, a heavy rescue, two medic units, two battalion chief vehicles, and six ambulances out of its 11 stations. Hargis notes that Station 2811 currently houses one engine company crewed by four firefighters, a medic unit, and occasionally a battalion chief.

The interior of Chandler 2811's apparatus bays.

Klindt Breckenridge, Breckenridge Group's principal, says he faced a challenge from the beginning because of the site. "The property is at the southwest corner of Octollio and Gilbert Roads in Chandler and has a Roosevelt Water Conservation District canal adjacent to it that truncated the southeast corner of the site," Breckenridge says. "In addition, there's a wastewater plant next to the site that has a 60-inch diameter pipe running through the front of the property, so we had to set the station 150 back from the road."

The kitchen area in Station 2811. Note the brass fire pole, which brings power to the kitchen island.

Breckenridge designed an 11,000-square-foot facility with three drive-through, double-deep 84-foot apparatus bays; 11 dorm rooms; four bathroom/shower facilities; an open concept kitchen/dining/day room area; offices; an exercise room/gym; laundry facilities, and storage rooms. He notes the structure is all masonry over a steel frame, with chipboard sheetrock over interior metal studs for the walls and a single-ply low-slope roof.

One of the four unisex bathroom/shower fa