Fire Stations

[MATTE]

Just thought i start a discussion on our Fire Stations, what we like about them, what we dont, what facilities u have (Gym, How many engine bays, workshops etc)

I think the Fire Stations is one of the greatest morale boosters especially for a Fire Service.

For starter how good would Glass doors be! do any of our stations have them?

[Mike]

Currently  4 bays... but a proposed new station of 3 bays....
less doors but much roomier for those that have a tad difficulty negotiating tight spaces backwards

[corocfs]

MATTE,

our station at coro is pretty good, it would be better however if a bit more thought and pre-planning had gone into it. we share with SES and basically our engine bays (a 3 bay shed, with BA compressor room, workshop, and storeroom) has been crammed into one corner of the yard, while the SES build as many sheds as possible on all differant angles around us.
we then have the main building with training/meeting room, comms room, and kitchen, plus a lot of SES "dumping grounds" (aka storerooms), built in the middle of the block.

basically in my opinion, i know is too late now, but i think the station should have been built, not just as a joint location for CFS/SES, but as a joint station with CFS and SES vehicles in the same shed.
my plan for that would then be...
main block made completely flat, and engine bays (4 by 2 deep (3x CFS appliances to station, plus 5x SES appliances)) shed turned into a drive-thru sstation, and main area for training/meeting/comms, built in a seperate building at back of block behind engine bay doors... with of course, your fav addition, glass roller doors...

but that would just be a really expensive fantasy fire station...

btw... for your info, littlehampton and nairne both used to have glass doors, but i believe these dissapeared when taller trucks came along and modifications to station heights had to be made.

can anyone tell me if there are any drive-through stations in the CFS anywhere???

[Firefrog]

One Tree Hill is drive through.

[CyberCitizen]

Hey Matte,

I Believe Morphett Vale Is Also Drive Through

It Would Be Nice If We Had Drive Through (Would You Like Fries With That?). We Currently Have A 4 Bay Station But Only Use 3 Of The Bays As Another Service Use The Last Bay.

[24P]

Nuri and Salisbury = drive thru

[JamesGar]

Belair's has a three bay station. Nice non-slip flooring (rubber compound carpet material). Poor design is the fact that there's a slight incline out the front of the station which labours the poor old pumper as it's pulling on to the road.

Yankalilla has a 5 bay station, 4 at front and 1 at rear. Original plan was for a 7 bay station, but got knocked back by council who thought it was too big. Station know has a Rescue, 24P, 24, Tanker, Pump Trailer and Generator Trailer for the CFS. 1 Dual Cab ute and 1 4WD Wagon, and 15 foot IRB Boat for the SES, 1 SES trailer is stored outside. Fair to say the station is as full as can be!

Few essentials I think that are required for future stations are:
1, Non Slip flooring is essential, not just concrete.
2, Electric Roller Doors for all doors
3, Power and Air supplied to all vehicles
4, Office X2 (1 for officers/captain, one for admin)
5, Essential is an above ground double head hydrant for appliance filling
6, Locker room to keep PPE out of Engine Bays
7, BA Clean Room
8, Meeting/Training Room
9, Some social or relax area

Points 4 to 7 would obviously relate to larger, busier stations.

I don't think drive through is essential. If you can back an appliance into a station maybe you shouldn't be driving it in the first place!

[Mike]

I think you mean "if they CANT back an appliance...."

Dont be surprised if you find a few people that cant. As far as Im aware Transport SA had a rule that drivers weren't allowed to reverse the busses...

[rescue5271]

At naracoorte we have a  5 bay station  with auto doors these where put in this year thanks to our old regional commander. We have a meeting room,nice kitchen,toilets/shower,small radio room and small office for the officers. We have out growen our station and we would like to have a drive throu as backing into our station can be hard with traffic.

I (my view only) would like to see a non slip floor.large radio room so as to run jobs better and a big Mac and coke as we drive throu would be great. But there are stations with in this region  and others that need the basics.

[mattb]

Glass doors. These look fantastic and show the public that we actually drive white trucks, not red ones. Many CFA stations have them, even the tin sheds and it certainly looks good.

One thing we did recently was install a remote control system on our front roller doors. Previously when we rolled to a job and no one was left at the station you would have to pull the truck out then pull the doors down and run back out to the truck, sure it only takes a minute or so but still as we know every minute counts. Now as the truck drives out the officer pushes the button and the door comes down. A movement beam is fitted to prevent the door from squashing anyone that runs in as it's lowering.

It still alarms me to hear that some of our neighbouring brigades go to jobs with the doors up and no one left at the station, very risky business I would have thought in this day and age.

As for a drive through station, we have one but still prefer to back our trucks in. As has already been stated it you can't back a truck into a station then you shouldn't be driving (and don't forget that the SOP's state you must have someone guiding you when reversing).

[corocfs]

at coro our station has always ahd electric roller doors, that go up when our pagers activate.. but recently we have also installed a remote system, so it can be lowered quickly as we leave, it also has a sensor to ensure it doesnt come down on anyones head or any other objects left there...

the remote system is great when you come back from a job in the middle fo the night... noone has to get out to open up the bays.

[CFS_Firey]

Only 2 of ours doors are Electric, but they run off 3 phase power, which means in a blackout, the backup generator won't open them, and to open them by hand takes ~5-10 minutes (literally)... Don't any other brigades have trouble with blackouts and Electric doors?

[corocfs]

we can just nock the motors [edit] away from the mechanism and haulm them up on chains... takes about 10 seconds if that...

[rescue5271]

Hi all I have put a picture of karoonda station on the PROMO site it is still under constuction I did try and upload it here but would not let me.....

[strikeathird]

Chains are quicker than the electric doors, but its the convinience of the doors already being up when u get to the station that is the main thing.  but in a blackout, only takes a couple of seconds to haul them up.

Like the glass door idea, altho VERY costly.  Can almost build a station for the price of 3 glass roller doors.

[corocfs]

our electric doors only take about 10 seconds to go up...

[CFS_Firey]

strikeathird, Do your station's doors come up when the page come through, or when the first person arrives? Our doors won't come up until the security alarm is deactivated...

As for my ideal station, I far prefer the brick stations (although I know these cost way too much)... Tin stations seem to look less professional almost temporary.
Toilets are essential, as is a training room / crew room, radio room and store room... I think a good station would also have a kitchen and workshop (for fixing stuff ).
Other good features for a station are plenty of parking area, and also fronting onto the road... I'm also up for a drive through station as well, sure its easier to reverse in, but a drive though makes it easier still and safer (no more having to have a guide in the rain )

By looking at the poll, it looks like most of us come from reasonably big stations... Is that coincidence, or are there more 4/5 bay stations out there that I thought there were

[kat]

strikeathirdBy looking at the poll, it looks like most of us come from reasonably big stations... Is that coincidence, or are there more 4/5 bay stations out there that I thought there were

I don't think it's a coincidence. I think the vast majority of CFS Brigades have one bay tin sheds or inadequate two bay stations. I think that in general these Brigade members are there because of an obilgation rather than see CFS as a passion or a recreational hobby. Therefore they are unlikely to spend too much time on forums such as these.

[kat]

Only 2 of ours doors are Electric, but they run off 3 phase power, which means in a blackout, the backup generator won't open them, and to open them by hand takes ~5-10 minutes (literally)... Don't any other brigades have trouble with blackouts and Electric doors?

Our doors activate as soon as the *CFS RES page goes out. In a black out if lifted manually they are quite a pain as the motor needs knocking out of gear before manually raising them. They are quite old and it takes ages to get them to close properly after this has been done. Emergency power supplies are a solution to this problem but in the old days I used to go to the station as soon as there was a power outage  (allowed me to check that radios had gone over to battery power OK) and run an extenstion cord from the 5kva generator on board the appliance to the door control. In the event of a call it took 10 seconds to start the generator, lift the doors, unplug the cord and away!!

[kat]

And while we're on doors - here's a door story

In the old, old days we had those fold type doors (at least they were red) which used to get badly stuck and take 5 or 6 crew 15 minutes to open.

One day the CEO of the day, Don McArthur was at the station doing presentations when the crew bailed him up about this problem. He was incredulous and basically didn't beleive it to be true so thought he'd try it out for himself. Well all credit due to him because he didn't give up until after about 20 minutes of pushing and turning blue.

Would've been less than a week later the Brigade received a cheque for $3000 to have the automatic roller doors installed!!!

When the first "P" arrived at Tailem it wouldn't fit in the station. We were allocated a very small budget to address the problem which wouldn't have stretched to new doors. After the front section of the building was jacked up and bodged imagine our anticipation as for the first time we hit the down button and watched our doors roll slowly to the ground. They stopped approx 3mm from the concrete full stretch!!! 3mm we can live with

[strikeathird]

Doors go up on MFS or CFS response page, alarm stil stays active, and needs to be turned off by first member.

[probie_boy]

i don't think that doors that open when pagers go off are a particularly good idea for brigades that have smaller member numbers and so on for security reasons. what happens if a page goes off at 1300 and no one responds... the doors are open for anyone walking past. it sounds a little farfetched but some people could see it as an open invitation for a personal tour of the station.

by the way, what happens with the alarm then?

[CFS_Firey]

If you have small member numbers, integrate the doors with the security system, so that the doors won't come up until someone de-activates the security alarm. As I've said before, thats the setup my station has... if no one shows up, the doors stay closed until someone de-activates the alarm, even if that was days later.

[Mike]

What model alarm panel do you have in the station CFS_Firey?

[CFS_Firey]

To be honest I have absolutely no idea. It's a remotely monitored security alarm that had the door opening feature added to  it when the off air decoder was added to the fire station interface. I can find a model / make if you want - just let me know...