Red ribbons – red trucks – Hamilton gets new fire station

by John Dowd

After nearly seven years, the new Hamilton Fire Department finally opened the doors to the new fire station. Since 2017, according to Fire Chief Brad Mohn, city officials and the fire department have been working towards building an up-to-date facility. That day finally came last Friday when the chief and Mayor Dominic Farrenkopf cut the ribbon on the new station.

“It’s really been an undertaking,” said Mohn. 

Having been chief for 13 years, Mohn well understood the limitations of the previous station, which was over 100 years old. Not only will the new location allow easier and quicker response to fire emergencies, but it will avoid fire teams needing to exit out through the downtown corridor and will allow more parking for firefighters. Before, parking was previously relegated to on-street parking, taking up a lot of space. Farrenkopf also explained how, with proper design, the building was able to take advantage of a relatively small lot with a very big building. The space is approximately 14,000 square feet, and will allow the fire department to get rid of some of their old outdated equipment for newer, more efficient and larger pieces.

The new station makes its home on the corner of Foxfield Street and Skeels Ave. The site was originally the location of the Feed and Farm, which burned down. The city was eventually looking to use the space and decided it would work well for the new station. The project reportedly cost over $7 million, and the facility is truly state of the art. 

The building was designed primarily with firefighter safety in mind, according to Mohn. To accomplish this, the station is laid out into three main sections, moving east to west. The first is the office, living space and in-house training areas. The center space is the garage, where the trucks and equipment is parked. The third, westernmost space includes several off-shoot rooms where gear is stored, cleaned and donned during responding. In between the garage and the living space are lab style “airlocks.” These small rooms have sensors that prevent contaminated air from circulating into the main space where the firefighters stay and work. There are even sensors in much of the rest of the building that help further prevent cross contamination by employing lab fans and special air circulation units. 

According to firefighters Chris Mayor and Tony Sisson, there are many reasons for this. According to Mayor, in the past, “dirty gear was a right of passage,” but over time, fire departments and fighters began to realize there were serious health problems associated with firefighting. Sisson added that they even had one of their own members recently go through a bout with cancer that was likely a result of the job. Both firefighters explained that the problem is only getting worse. With buildings utilizing more and more synthetic, plastic and rubber in their construction, those materials when burned are creating an extremely hazardous environment. In the past, most materials were natural and thus far less dangerous when burned. With the modern materials creating dangerous fumes, there is a far more concerted effort world-wide to protect the long term health of firefighters who need to work in those conditions, according to both Mayor and Sisson. 

This is also why there was serious thought put into the design of the building and the inclusion of top-of-the-line cleaning equipment. Even how firefighters enter back into the building has been considered, with cleaning one of the first stops fighters make when entering. This way, their equipment can be cleaned immediately, and can further prevent contamination of the rest of the building.

The station was also planned for future growth. The Hamilton Fire Department covers an area that stretches from Lost Horse Creek to Blodgett, and provides mutual aid to Darby and Corvallis. The department currently employs around 27 firefighters. To accommodate the current and growing numbers, and potentially longer on-call hours, the station includes a much larger workout room than its predecessor, and spaces for overnight lodging. There are also much larger recreation, kitchen and office spaces in which firefighters can work. The department even managed to include the original slide-pole from the old station. It is featured in the front of the building in the large conference/training room, as an ode to the old days of firefighting and to the history of the department.