RRM in the News: New Creston Fire Station

Posted by: Creston Roundup (www.crestonroundup.wordpress.com)

The Firehouse: Inside and Out

I was lucky to be invited to join in a visit to the new Firehouse recently. The tour began with a walk-through of the interior, lead by CAL FIRE, Deputy Chief, Rick Swan. Undoubtedly, the most impressive visual feature is the massive trusses above the bays that can house up to 4 engines. We were guided through the office and living quarters, all the while walking on polished, exposed aggregate, concrete floors with skylights overhead and stacks of, yet to be installed, cabinets.

We were shown the Captain’s office, a Sheriff’s interview room, the IT/Communications room with wires dangling from the walls and ceiling that will eventually connect the Station radios, phones and computers. Matt Jauregue, the Emergency Plan Center Chief said, “the County has done a really great job in the technical part of wiring all of our fire stations. It gives us a lot of flexibility. We will be using the County standards with 2 to 3 wireless access points within the building.” We saw a laundry area, the kitchen, four bedrooms and a dayroom that will include an entertainment center. The indoor part of the tour concluded with what will be a carpeted training room with outside access and restrooms that will be available to the community for group meetings.

The outside tour included a 30,000 gallon water storage tank that Kathy Mac Neill, from County Architectural Services, said cost about $50,000, installed. In conjunction with the tank there is a huge fire pump for pressurizing the Station’s sprinkler system. Sheila Lyons asked whether the station would have any photovoltaic panels. Deputy Chief Swan said, “not yet but we are trying to get at least some included in the budget, Fifth District Supervisor, Jim Patterson said “if there is money left, they are hoping to put a system in and that the panels would be located behind the station over the leech field.” We viewed the Landscape Plan, prepared by San Luis Obispo, RRM Design Group. Supervisor Patterson, who has recruited the Creston Garden Club to plant some trees, said he would like to take advantage of the bare root season. Rick Swan said that the Rarrig Construction contract ends February 23rd and that does not include any change list items or certain other county projects. He estimated that mid April would be a reasonable time for completion. He said that a letter requesting authorization for occupancy needed to be signed off by the Board of Supervisors. “Once that is done, then we can actually move in.”, he said.

So, it looks like the old Fire Station will be available for renovation in April, provided that CATCH has secured a ground lease for the property and a permit for the project has been issued. These items are moving through the proper channels and are expected to be in hand by the time of ground breaking for the new Creston Community Center.

Police and Fire Training Facility to Open

From the Coast News:

Police and fire training facility to open

By Shelli DeRobertis on Dec 29, 2011 with Comments 0

CARLSBAD — In just more than four acres of space, peace officers and firefighters can train for emergencies at a fake mini strip mall, help someone trapped in an elevator, rappel from the top of a five-story building, fight a kitchen or garage fire, shoot pistols and rifles, receive classroom instruction using the latest technology and crawl into underground tunnels after the $16.5 million training facility is expected to open early in the new year.

The city’s Joint First Responder’s Training Facility is state-of-the-art construction that is taking shape on a patch of land that used to be a grass field between the Carlsbad police and fire stations, at 2650 Orion Way.

The city’s emergency personnel have had to commute to other training centers around the county to train, but soon the entire region can benefit from using their own first-class training center, which has buildings equipped with moveable props and smoke effects that up-close resemble a movie set.

“The whole idea is to create an environment where it looks and feels real,” said Carlsbad Police Capt. Bill Rowland, who heads the project for the police department.

From conception to the September 2010 construction, it took about seven years to create the three-building facility — a one of its kind for at least the county — as its design implements concepts combined from several other safety training centers.

Robert Rowe, the superintendent of Ledcor Construction Inc., the contracted company performing the work, said the technology used in the Carlsbad training center comes from the military.

“In Poway, you have a little tower you can run up and down. This is true to life; you have residential, industrial, burn props, and commercial and a 100-yard (shooting) range,” he said.

The streetscape area has a city feel to it, he said, and it mimics the Sheriff’s at Duffy’s Town in San Diego along with concepts pulled from Laser Village, which is the fake town portion of the Orange County Sheriff’s Tactical Training Center.

Rowland came up with adding the streetscape design to the Carlsbad training center in an area that was a blank wall in the original design, he said.

Now the wall front is like an actual city street made of up several storefronts, including a fake bank with framework in place for two ATM props.

Inside the residential building, a garage and a kitchen will each house computer-controlled fire props that use natural gas to create real heat and flame, without creating huge plumes of smoke.

The classroom building can occupy up to 100 people in its main instruction room, and the other side of the building has two indoor shooting ranges inside.

The city’s officers have been practicing at an outdoor shooting range on a dirt berm, but now will benefit from simulated scenarios inside the two indoor ranges that are complete with light and smoke effects and moveable props.

Even the city’s mobile command unit will benefit from the new center, and now park underneath a special covered carport.

The five-story commercial building, which has outdoor stairs and resembles a hotel, will become the tallest building in the city, Rowland said.

But the training extends belowground, also, and utility workers and first responders can practice subterranean rescue inside of an underground rescue prop.

“It certainly is everything we need to do. We’re not sending our assets out of the city,” Rowland said.

Firefighters have had to travel to Escondido and Otay for their training.

He said the emergency responders will be able to do a lot of their training while on duty, which keeps them in the city and available to respond when needed.

Los Angeles Fire Station No. 13 - "Great Shot of the Month"

Thanks to Michael Urbanek for featuring our Los Angeles Fire Station No. 13 as the "Great Shot of the Month" for May: http://bit.ly/cIInLn

 

Find out More... http://www.firestationdesign.com/design-examples/

 

Creston Breaks Ground on New Cal Fire Station

Creston breaks ground on new Cal Fire station

From the Atascadero News:

Posted: Friday, Apr 22nd, 2011
BY: Creig P. Sherburne

Ground was broken in Creston on Wednesday to build a new California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection station.

Comparing the current station to the new one is difficult. The current station is effectively a large room with roll-up doors housing equipment and a pair of unattached mobile homes housing Cal Fire fire fighters and their offices.

The new building will be more than 6,600 square feet, able to house four fire engines in two bays, have four bedrooms with two beds each, a training room that can double as a meeting hall for Creston’s social events and even space for Sheriff’s deputies that cover that area of the county.

“There’s a lot of difference between a normal station and a mobile home,” Cal Fire Engineer George Huang said.

The new location is less than a mile from the current building, about a quarter mile from the Highway 226 and Swayze Street intersection in Creston. However, the location is on a paved road.

At present, Cal Fire station No. 43 is in the town of Creston at the end of a dirt road. Captain Kirk Gramberg said that during fire season, when an engine goes speeding down the lane, it raises a cloud of dust that he said has to be seen to be believed.

Beside being more convenient, more functional and being code compliant — “we haven’t really looked in to the code compliance of our mobile homes,” Huang said — the new station is going to be a source of pride for Creston, Acting Chief Robert Lewin said.

Lewin said that traditionally, fire departments have represented the community they’re in.

“From architecture to the volunteers staffing it to community events, a fire station is of and for the community,” he said. “People will drive by it and say, ‘that’s ours.’ It’ll give us a sense of pride.”

From all accounts, the man most responsible for the new station is retired Chief Matt Jenkins.

“Chief Jenkins has the vision,” said Lewin. “He saw [the old station was] inadequate for the community and he plowed through with perseverance to make it happen.”

The architect, RRM design, worked with Cal Fire and Sheriff officials and with the community to make a useful building that can grow with Cal Fire’s needs and be that source of pride for the community.

Susan Souza has lived in Creston for 35 years and said she’s very happy about the project.

“It’ll be further from my house, though,” she joked, “but it’s going to be good.”

Included in the plans for the new building, said Lewin, is the intention of staffing it seven days a week. At present, Station 43 is staffed only three days a week — Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

“If it’s not manned 24/7 and if you pick the wrong day to have a fire, it’s no good,” said Anna Rapp, a 29-year Creston resident.

The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s department helped fund the building, and are getting dedicated space as a result. The space, an office and an interview room, are going to help the Sheriff’s department maintain a presence in the rural Creston outskirts.

Chief Deputy Rob Reid said it’s inconvenient getting all the way out there when the nearest home base is in Templeton, and having this office will make a big difference.

The new station is being built by San Luis Obispo-based Rarig Construction. Rarig secretary-treasurer Chris Rarig said construction will begin right around the first of May and will be done in about 10 months, just in time for the 2012 fire season. He also added that 90 percent of the sub-contractors will be local.

Lewin said that Station 43 covers 33,000 square miles, with Creston in the middle.

“We’ve got a really dedicated group of fire fighters,” Lewin said, “but the community needs more, and it’s about to get what it deserves.”

El Segundo Fire Station No. 2 has successfully obtained LEED Gold Certification!

The El Segundo Fire Station No. 2 has successfully obtained LEED Gold certification! This is the eighth LEED project, and the third LEED Gold for RRM Design Group.  This 14,000 SF station was situated on a contaminated Brownfield site that needed proper redevelopment.  Vapor barrier systems, and stormwater management techniques were incorporated in order to prevent further contamination of the surrounding environment and provide a clean site. All four methods of alternate transportation (public transportation access, bicycle storage, low-emitting vehicle parking, and minimized parking capacity) were incorporated into the site design in order to fully integrate the  fire station with the surrounding community. Water efficient systems, low emitting materials,  increased air ventilation, individual controls of lighting and thermal comfort were all technologies incorporated into the building to not only preserve the environment but to also provide a healthy building for the fire fighter’s home away from home. 

Riverside Downtown Fire Station No.1 - Out to Bid

After much waiting and anticipation, the Riverside Downtown Fire Station No. 1 has gone out to bid and the contract has been awarded. This fire station is intended to be the show piece for the Riverside Fire Department and is situated on a major corner in the downtown historic district. The fire station is three stories tall, totally approximately 30,500 SF. It incorporates four apparatus bays, 14 dorm spaces, 7,000 SF of administration space, an 800 SF museum space intended to house the Riverside Fire Department’s historic La France fire truck, as well as the first West Coast three story fire pole! The 500 calendar day construction schedule is intended to begin shortly, with an expected completion of September, 2012.