Benton County Deputies say welding could be a factor in a structure fire on the 900 block of east 23rd Avenue in Kennewick. When Benton County Fire District 1 and the Kennewick Fire Department arrived to the scene around 5 p.m. they heard gas cans and paint cans popping. The street was blocked off for over an hour as police and fire engines filled the street in front of the home.
- PUB DATE: 4/6/2018 7:29:28 AM - SOURCE: YakTriNews

City of Indianapolis , Fire Station No. 7 – This station, designed by AXIS Architecture + Interiors, features glass overhead doors with windows that lighten the masonry facades, flood apparatus bays with natural light, and create transparency and illumination at night. Remaining facades include textured masonry units, composite metal panels, and glass storefronts. Photo Courtesy of AXIS Architecture + Interiors.

Tips Courtesy of the Fire Industry Education Resource Organization (F.I.E.R.O.)

The following are five station design tips compiled by members of F.I.E.R.O. based on its jurors’ years of experience in designing fire stations as well as judging station designs for F.I.E.R.O.’s Fire Station Design Symposium awards entries.

1. Apparatus bay door opening widths should never be less than 14 feet wide and 14 feet high.
2. Parking areas for fire stations are never planned well. Architects should always have enough room for wide (10 feet), deep (16 feet) stalls and circulation isles at least 25 feet wide.
3. Avoid lighting maintenance headaches.
4. Front doors to stations should be obvious, up front, and next to the flag pole and public parking. When Mrs. Smith needs a firefighter’s attention quickly, don't force her to search for help.
5. Firefighters are very traditional and collect memorabilia including many photographs. Each station usually has its own logo and a way it identifies to the community. A typical fire station should have several locations designed for photographs, graphics, and physical memorabilia.

By Alan M. Petrillo

Two fire stations, one a new structure and the other a renovation, were undertaken by the Arizona Fire & Medical Authority, which at the time operated as North County Fire & Medical District located in the Phoenix, Arizona, metropolitan area. Renovation was needed on a station built to residential building standards in 1999, and a temporary station needed to be replaced.

After issuing requests for proposals (RFPs) to four architectural firms, the district performed its due diligence and chose Arrington Watkins Architects to design the projects.

North County Fire & Medical District and Sun Lakes Fire District adopted an intergovernmental agreement in 2017 to form the Arizona Fire & Medical Authority.

Matt Gorman, principal in Arrington Watkins, says the renovation on Station 103 "was pretty straightforward because the district was willing to completely gut the building. When we looked at how the redesign would have to meet their needs, we knew we had to remove everything."

Tim Van Scoter, Arizona Fire & Medical's deputy chief, agrees. "We had to gut the building down to the walls and ceilings," Van Scoter says. "The station had been built to 1999 residential standards, so surfaces were worn from lots of use, there was no functionality to the place, no individual bunk rooms or bathrooms, and the station was not American Disabilities Act (ADA) accessible. That's why we gutted it and remodeled."

Gorman says Arrington Watkins removed all the tile and carpet in the station and had the concrete floor ground to expose the aggregate then polished and sealed it. Fresh poured and polished concrete had to be laid down in a couple of areas, including the kitchen and the day room.

He points out that the challenge in the redesign was that the two double-deep, drive-through apparatus bays were in the center of the building. "There was a 30-foot long training room on one side of the building, which is the public side of the station where that space can be used as a community room," Gorman says, “then the truck bays in the middle of the structure, and living areas and offices on the other side. We reconfigured the training room area and improved the space for use by group functions."

Adjacent to the apparatus bays, Arrington Watkins added a new room for turnout gear, which had been stored in the bays and at an outside location. Gorman says they also added vestibules with double doors into the apparatus bays to isolate the bays from the living side of the station. Arrington Watkins also created eight individual bunk rooms and three new bathrooms—two individual unisex and ADA-accessible and one male bathroom with three showers.

Van Scoter says the renovated station has a new interior floorplan that is better suited to how the Authority operates, especially with the bunk rooms being similar to those it has in other stations.

Station 104 was built on property donated to the Authority by Arizona Public Service, the area's electric utility; however, the site had some problems, according to Gorman. "There was no water or sewer to the property, and electric power was a couple of miles away," he says. "We had to bring underground electric in, drill a water well, and install a septic system. The station is designed to support six firefighters, so we installed all low-flow fixtures in the station and were a

A Yakima firefighter is on the mend after breaking several ribs and puncturing a lung during a house fire Sunday at about 9 a.m. Lt. Cody Burton was one of several first responders at a house fire on Cornell Avenue near Mead Avenue that morning. The vacant was damaged the previous day from another fire.
- PUB DATE: 4/6/2018 4:06:29 AM - SOURCE: YakTriNews

A mobile home was destroyed by fire Thursday morning when a bottle rocket accidentally fired into the small trailer, according to the Key Peninsula Fire Department. The fire department tweeted at 3:58 a.m. that it was responding to a fully involved fire off of Key Peninsula Highway South. All residents evacuated the trailer allowing crews to take a defensive approach to the fire.
- PUB DATE: 4/6/2018 1:48:39 AM - SOURCE: Tacoma News Tribune