By Alan M. Petrillo

The Violet Township (OH) Fire Department provides fire and emergency medical services to a 41-square-mile service area in the northwest corner of Fairfield county from three stations—with one located in the historic downtown of Old Pickerington. That station was the department's original downtown firehouse and had restricted apparatus bay door sizes, tight sleeping quarters, and almost no storage.

KZF Design designed and built this station to complement surrounding structures in downtown Old Pickerington for Violet Township (OH) Fire Department. (Photos courtesy of KZF Design.)

Mike Little, Violet Township’s chief, says the department and township knew they needed to replace the old station. "The maximum height on the apparatus bay doors was nine feet, and the width was narrower than normal too," Little points out. "It was built as a volunteer station in 1953, and we had converted office space into bunk rooms that could sleep six in tight quarters upstairs next to a day room, while the apparatus bays occupied the ground floor. There was no room for expansion of the station." Little notes the department has 55 full-time and 20 part-time paid firefighters and handles 6,500 runs a year.

Violet Townships new station is an L-shaped design structure that encompasses 18.875 square feet.

Violet Township engaged KZF Design to design and build a replacement station in the old downtown are  but required KZF to give the new structure the look and feel of an old small town village, according to Mark Shoemaker, director of public facilities for KZF Design. Shoemaker says that Violet Township, the city of Pickerington, and the Chamber of Commerce worked to put together an L-shaped site that included an adjoining park right of way and a Chamber-owned property. "Violet Township got the city to vacate the park right of way and purchased the Chamber property, demolished the old fire station, and agreed to lease office space to the Chamber in the new station," Shoemaker says. "The fire department maintained a portion of the old park right of way, which allowed us to create a pedestrian pathway from the main street at the front of the new station to the park."

The KZF-designed fire station has three 55-foot long back-in apparatus bays facing Lockville Road on the east, and a 40-foot back-in bay that opens onto Park Alley.

Shoemaker says the new station's north side fronts on West Columbus Avenue and is two stories high, while the south side faces Park Alley, which has an eight-foot grade level lower than the Columbus Avenue side of the building, allowing the apparatus bays to be located in the back of the station in a floor below the level of the front ground floor entrance. "We had to meet the city's architectural guidelines and also picked up detailing from the ol

By Alan M. Petrillo

The Violet Township (OH) Fire Department provides fire and emergency medical services to a 41-square-mile service area in the northwest corner of Fairfield county from three stations—with one located in the historic downtown of Old Pickerington. That station was the department's original downtown firehouse and had restricted apparatus bay door sizes, tight sleeping quarters, and almost no storage.

KZF Design designed and built this station to complement surrounding structures in downtown Old Pickerington for Violet Township (OH) Fire Department. (Photos courtesy of KZF Design.)

Mike Little, Violet Township’s chief, says the department and township knew they needed to replace the old station. "The maximum height on the apparatus bay doors was nine feet, and the width was narrower than normal too," Little points out. "It was built as a volunteer station in 1953, and we had converted office space into bunk rooms that could sleep six in tight quarters upstairs next to a day room, while the apparatus bays occupied the ground floor. There was no room for expansion of the station." Little notes the department has 55 full-time and 20 part-time paid firefighters and handles 6,500 runs a year.

Violet Townships new station is an L-shaped design structure that encompasses 18.875 square feet.

Violet Township engaged KZF Design to design and build a replacement station in the old downtown are  but required KZF to give the new structure the look and feel of an old small town village, according to Mark Shoemaker, director of public facilities for KZF Design. Shoemaker says that Violet Township, the city of Pickerington, and the Chamber of Commerce worked to put together an L-shaped site that included an adjoining park right of way and a Chamber-owned property. "Violet Township got the city to vacate the park right of way and purchased the Chamber property, demolished the old fire station, and agreed to lease office space to the Chamber in the new station," Shoemaker says. "The fire department maintained a portion of the old park right of way, which allowed us to create a pedestrian pathway from the main street at the front of the new station to the park."

The KZF-designed fire station has three 55-foot long back-in apparatus bays facing Lockville Road on the east, and a 40-foot back-in bay that opens onto Park Alley.

Shoemaker says the new station's north side fronts on West Columbus Avenue and is two stories high, while the south side faces Park Alley, which has an eight-foot grade level lower than the Columbus Avenue side of the building, allowing the apparatus bays to be located in the back of the station in a floor below the level of the front ground floor entrance. "We had to meet the city's architectural guidelines and also picked up detailing from the ol

LONDON (PRWEB)—Arcus Fire has unveiled a wildland firefighting vehicle. Using equipment provided by world-class manufacturers, a directional variable flow water turbine is combined with a fully-tracked body. The resulting vehicle can throw water, gel, or retardant 75 meters at flow rates of 100 to 2,000 liters per minute.

Traveling at 10 kph on a variety of terrain types, the Wildtrack can suppress up to 24 acres per hour, depending on fuel and terrain. Capable of being reloaded by helicopter through its 5,000-liter (1,321-gallon) baffled hopper water tank, the Wildtrack is able to keep moving, continuously laying down suppressant and supporting firefighters with three external Camlock connections for standard fire hoses fed from the water tank.

“The Wildtrack is easy to deploy,” said Arcus Fire CEO Nick Davis. “Two vehicles can fit on a standard flatbed truck and be delivered to the fireline the same as a bulldozer. The Wildtrack also has hardpoints built into the chassis that allow it to be helicoptered to more remote locations. Using a helicopter which can carry water, such as an S-64 Aircrane or a CH-47 Chinook, the helicopter that delivers the vehicles can also resupply the vehicles from nearby water sources.”

Wildtrack drivers are able to use high-intensity strobes to provide visual cuing to helicopters supporting them, while the driver is provided with Forward Looking Infra-Red (FLIR) vision for safety during night operations.

Real-time satellite tracking of the Wildtrack is available, as is a link to a 90-minute endurance Arcus Drone with survey repeater beamed into the cab for a bird’s-eye view of the situation on the ground.

“We will offer different leasing programs to organizations and agencies which wish to contract the Wildtrack,” Davis added. “Following the 2018 fire season in the U.S., in which millions of acres burned, billions of dollars of real estate was destroyed, and over 100 lives were lost, my vision is that I would like to be able to reduce losses to less than $1 billion, with only a few structures lost and no loss of life within 5 years’ time.”

“The Arcus Wildtrack apparatus brings some new and old concept ability to assist wildland firefighters in suppressing wildfires. I look forward to seeing the Arcus Wildtrack go from concept to prototype and seeing it in action in 2020,” said Chief Kim Zagaris, Western Fire Chiefs Association Wildfire & Policy Advisor.

For more information, visit www.arcusfire.com.