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The Dayton Daily News is committed to covering capital improvement projects in the city of Kettering. From the planning stages to construction to completion, we have covered every stage of the $29.6 million fire station project and how it impacts your family’s safety.
Kettering fire personnel should be completely moved into the first of four new fire stations by Wednesday.
The fire department began moving non-operational equipment into its new Station 32, located at 3484 Far Hills Ave., on Tuesday, according to Fire Chief Terry Jones.
Station 32 is part of a more than $29.6 million project to build four new fire stations in the city.
“Council is focused on all of our capital infrastructure whether it be our buildings or whether it be our roadway systems,” said city manager Mark Schwieterman. “… we’re utilizing our current year revenues and reserves to make sure our infrastructure matches the quality of life that is expected of us by our residents and employees.”
The Kettering Fire Department currently staffs four firehouses 24 hours a day, seven days a week, according to Jones. The average age of those stations is 42 years old.
“It will be an improvement because our new stations are strategically located in the optimum positions to give us the best possible service,” Jones said.
The layout of the stations should help crews respond faster, according to Jones.
“Whether it’s one of the offices, our report-writing section, a day room or family room or kitchen, or even the bunk room, they’re all located in proximity to the apparatus bay, which facilitates that rapid response,” he said.
The bay at Station 32 also serves as a training space for rope and ladder drills.
“Before, we were limited to only going to our training center. We had to do it outside so weather was always an issue … But now we can do it 365 days a year,” Battalion Chief Jon Durrenberg said.
The new station also has three levels of confined-space training, complete with replicated manhole openings.
“We don’t have to go out to actual street sewers and block off roads. We can do (the training) right here in the station, and that will allow us to keep those skills up to date,” Durrenberg said.
Each new fire station will include videoconference technology that will allow first responders to stay at the station for lecture-based training, rather than leaving the district.
“By incorporating the technology to allow them to stay in station, we keep response times to a minimum,” Jones said.
Safety of first responders was also incorporated into the design of the four new stations, Jones said. Each station will have a “clean room” located right off the bay that will allow first responders to wash their uniforms and turnout gear.
“They can walk from the bay to the clean room, decon their clothing, decon themselves, without going into the living quarters within the station,” Jones said.
The current firehouses were built as volunteer fire stations, with emergency personnel responding from home, so the living quarters were tight, with some corners of offices being converted into bedrooms.
Station 32, as well as the other new stations, will have individual bedrooms for each first responder on shift and a large kitchen area that fits everyone on duty.
The second new fire station, which will be located on Hempstead Station Drive, is under construction. It will house the department’s headquarters and is expected to open later this year, according to Schwieterman.
Construction is expected to begin late this year on the new station located on the city’s east side. The city is in the process of finalizing the location for its new west side station, which is expected to be constructed in 2017, according to Schwieterman.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony and public open house will be held at 10 a.m. March 15 at Station 32.
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