Branch Township (MI) officials hosted a public hearing Monday ahead of the building of a new facility that will house both township officials and the fire department, reports shorelinemedia.com.

The Branch Township Fire Department, located at 6697 U.S. 10, is in a building in dire need of space, officials say; the department’s water tankers need to be filled to weigh them down enough to fit through the doors.

Officials say, in anticipation of building a new facility, the township has set aside $100,000 since 2013. They add that the township received from a resident about 10 acres of property across U.S. 10 from Wanna Buy Sheds, which has been partly cleared of trees.

The plan is to build an 80-by-100-foot building on the site with township offices and fire department offices on one side of the building and fire apparatus on the other half. A mezzanine would be above the offices for training, the report says.

To fund the project the township is considering a 15-year millage at 1 mill; the township has an estimate of $800,000 for the building itself. Officials took that estimate to a bank for financing options, and they left with the 15-year term with an anticipated preliminary interest rate of between 1 3/4 and 2 1/4%, according to the report.

Officials say there may be a second public hearing on the project in the spring, well before a potential vote in August 2022.

By Alan M. Petrillo

The Phoenix (AZ) Fire Department is on a mission to mitigate firefighter sleep-deprivation issues in its existing fire stations by renovating dorm areas, and in new stations, designing sleeping spaces and running customized alerting systems to combat the problem.

“The old open dorm space went away a long time ago,” says Jim Zwerg, Phoenix Fire’s architect and facilities manager. “When the city of Phoenix adopted the International Building Code (IBC), changing from the Universal Building Code, all of our stations went to individual dorm spaces because the IBC considered sleeping spaces in fire stations under a residential designation, which meant individual dorm rooms for firefighters.”

Zwerg points out that after the market crash in 2009 and 2010, most of the renovations to Phoenix’s fire stations were put on hold—until 2014 when Phoenix renovated Station 33 with the aim of changing its dorms to help mitigate the issue of sleep deprivation. “Stations that are in proximity to the freeways, (Interstate 10 and Interstate 17, as well as several state freeways), and those in heavy call volume areas, some of their companies are going out every 15 to 20 minutes on a call,” Zwerg says. “A firefighter on a 24-hour shift doesn’t get a lot of sleep in those stations.”

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Posted: Nov 10, 2021

Photo of the Day: November 10, 2021

Toyne—Trout Creek (NY) Fire District pumper. International HV607 cab and chassis; Cummins L9 450-hp engine; Hale Qmax 1,500-gpm pump; UPF Poly 1,000-gallon water tank; Toyne custom slide-out shelving; FRC SPA260/Q70 scene lights. Dealer: Nate Shakerley, Shakerley Fire Truck Sales, Clifton Park, NY.

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