Montgomery County (MD) Replaces Two-Bay Firehouse with Four-Bay One-Story Fire Station

BY ALAN M. PETRILLO

The Montgomery County (MD) Fire & Rescue Service has 39 stations housing both career and volunteer fire companies that cover 507 square miles and a million residents.

When Maryland decided to create a grade-separated interchange at the intersection of Georgia Avenue and Randolph Road in Silver Spring—two major north-south and east-west roads—the department’s 1950s two-bay, back-in fire station would have been landlocked with no road access, which meant it needed to find a new location for a new station.

The Fire & Rescue Service had to use a temporary station while a new facility was being built at the southwest corner of Georgia Avenue and Randolph Road, a site that allowed Hughes Group Architects to design a 22,564-square-foot, one-story fire station with four double-deep, drive-through apparatus bays.

APPARATUS BAYS

Don Scheuerman Jr., section chief of the Montgomery County Division of Building Design and Construction in its Department of General Services, says it was important that the design of the new station incorporate drive-through apparatus bays. “The new station feeds out onto Georgia Avenue, which is a major artery, so we didn’t want fire apparatus out there making K turns in the middle of the street and holding up traffic,” Scheuerman says. Another criterion that Montgomery County wanted in the new station was bifold doors instead of roll-up doors on all apparatus bays. “Bifold doors open very quickly and also have better visibility for the apparatus driver,” he points out. “They are a much safer door in that they reduce the number of accidents where the vehicle strikes the bottom of a roll-up door when exiting the station before the roll-up is fully opened. And, it’s also been shown that bifold doors have a greater longevity of use and have fewer maintenance issues.”

Scott Goldstein, Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service chief, agrees on the use of bifold doors in the new station. “The bifold doors are well worth the extra cost when compared with roll-up doors,” Goldstein says. “About the only concern is that you need an additional four feet of bumper space for a bifold door, which makes the engine room a little bit longer. Our apparatus bays are 84 feet long.”

FIREFIGHTER AREAS

Goldstein says that Glenmont Station 18 has a large, separate, and dedicated turnout gear room, something that Montg