The Simpsonville (SC) Fire Department’s Station 65 serves as its new fire headquarters, replacing a 1950s-era station with a modern facility that brings together firefighters and administrative staff from three separate buildings and features large glass doors that look into the apparatus bays, allowing residents and visitors to see the apparatus up close.
Harold Nichols, Simpsonville’s fire chief, says the department protects 9 square miles in the city of Simpsonville and another 23 square miles under contract with Greenville county from six stations where 69 firefighter/emergency medical technicians (EMTs) run four engines, two quints, one heavy rescue, and one battalion chief vehicle. He notes that the prior station had two single-deep back-in bays, a battalion chief’s bay, short bay doors that wouldn’t accommodate modern fire apparatus, a very small bunk room with six firefighters crammed in it, and even though it was the headquarters station, half of the administrative staff operated from a former library and the other half from another fire station.
“We knew we needed a new headquarters station and wanted a building that could house all of our administrative staff under one roof,” Nichols observes. “But, we had to continue to use the old station while the new one was being built about 500 yards down the road.”
Michael Pry, principal at DP3 Architects Ltd., says his design team was selected to create a new municipal campus that would bring together fire station headquarters, police headquarters, city hall, and municipal and court functions, as well as redeveloping Simpsonville City Park. “The one-story fire station headquarters is located at the east corner of the municipal complex in a prominent spot at the main entrance to the park and showcases the department’s fire apparatus through glass doors both front and back,” Pry says.
The new fire headquarters has three double-deep, drive-through apparatus bays, he points out, and along one wall are a decon and laundry room, turnout gear storage room, cascade support space, a workroom, and a self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) fill room. There’s a mezzanine above those spaces that’s walled in but has openings cut for balconies accessible from the bays, anchor points for rope work, and a manhole over the workshop where firefighters can practice confined space rescues.” The station also has two outdoor covered parking spaces for a battalion chief and EMS vehicle.
Entry from the street is through a two-story lobby with an adjacent triage room, restrooms, and a training/community room that holds 50 people. Behind a restricted access door are a watch/duty room with work stations for firefighters, conference room, restrooms, and an administrative suite for the chief, fire marshal, and other administrators.
Nichols points out that the new fire headquarters has 12 bunkrooms with privacy walls and three lockers each and four toilet/sink/shower restrooms. “The cubicles were the result of what the personnel wanted,” he says. “They didn’t want separate rooms, but we wanted to give them privacy, so we went with the cubicle type arrangement where the walls don’t go all the way to the ceiling. For the future, the station was designed with a notch in the corner of the station adjacent to the bunk rooms so we could add a new dorm in the future if the need arose.”
He says the station has a kitchen/dining area/dayroom, and a large exercise room with glass walls. “The firefighters love the station,” Nichols observes. “Their only complaint is it’s a very large building with a lot of space to clean, and a lot of glass to keep clean.”…