By Alan M. Petrillo
San Jose (CA) Fire Department’s new Station 37 is designed and built to the city of San Jose’s Zero Net Carbon (ZNC) standards, which eliminates the use of natural gas, and has energy efficient electric appliances for its heating and cooling systems, water heater, and kitchen stove.
Aaron Freyler, San Jose’s deputy chief of support services, says that in addition to the ZNC, Station 37 has 82 photovoltaic (PV) panels over the roof of the fire station and an adjacent parking structure that generate a total of 25-kW in solar power to augment the station’s electricity use.
“The area where Station 37 is located is growing in population with a lot more high-density housing,” Freyler observes. “It is an area that was hard for us to reach from our surrounding stations in the four-minute travel time that we set for runs, so we located the new station in roughly the center of that growth area.”
Station 37 is a two-story structure with 8,100 square feet of space, Freyler says. The station has two back-in apparatus bays with fast-opening four-fold doors, with an adjacent decon room, work room, and turnout gear storage room. The living spaces in the station include a captain’s office, crew office, an open-plan kitchen, dining and day room plan, and five two-bed dorms each with private bathroom and shower facilities. The station was designed for energy efficiency through the use of numerous occupancy sensors.
The $8.8 million station was built with funds from a Disaster Preparedness, Public Safety and Infrastructure Bond approved by voters.
San Jose Fire Department serves the tenth largest city in the United States and the third largest in California, as well as unincorporated areas of Santa Clara County totaling approximately 1.2 million residents. The department provides emergency services for a number of high hazard occupancies including an international airport, a municipal airport, seven major hospitals, the SAP Center (home to the NHL’s San Jose Sharks), San Jose State University, three super regional malls, 108 high rise structures, and the US Patent and Trademark Office. Freyler points out that the department responded to 103,000 calls in 2022.
The department runs 33 Type 1 engines, nine aerial ladders, two Type 3 engines, three rescue squads, a hazardous materials truck, a foam truck, a command truck, four ARFF (aircraft rescue and firefighting) vehicles, and two USAR (urban search and rescue) trucks.
ALAN M. PETRILLO is a Tucson, Ariz.-based journalist, the author of three novels and five non-fiction books, and a member of the Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment editorial advisory board. He served 22 years with Verdoy (NY) Fire Department, including the position of chief.