Germantown Fire District Fire House improvements

Forty years ago, the Germantown Fire District built a fire house that, at the time, was a state-of-the-art facility. But times have changed, and now what was once the best the fire district’s money could buy now barely meets the district’s most basic needs. There is a building project in process to rectify that.

There is an expansion and renovation plan that would result in a facility that can accommodate the newer, larger equipment now being built as well as provide office, meeting, and community space. So cramped are the district’s quarters now that in order for volunteers to get from one side of one of the garages to the other, they have to open a garage door because there is less than one foot of clearance space between the nose of the tanker truck and the bay door. The clearance between the ceiling and the top of several of the fire district’s trucks, some of which were built specifically to fit the space can be measured in inches. In 1957, when the existing facility was built, fire apparatus were basically oversized pickup trucks. Now the fire tankers are large size heavy duty trucks several times larger than the apparatus used in the 40’s or 50’s. Further, the rescue boat, used to respond to emergency calls on the water, must be housed at the town’s highway garage because there is no room for it at the fire district’s Main Street facility.

The fire chief’s office is actually a desk and a filing cabinet shoe-horned onto a stairwell landing. The district’s office is a converted bathroom reducing the number of bathrooms in the building to one shared by all firefighter’s and the public.

Grateful firefighters and district officials were supported by the community vote approving the bond for construction of the new garage bays and alterations to the existing building. Due to increases in steel, plywood, and transportation costs between the original planning and the final bidding process, some alterations to the existing building had to be postponed. The district and the company hope to raise sufficient funds by donation and fund raisers to complete the needed renovations over a relatively short period of time.

The construction of a pre-engineered six bay garage behind the existing facility is included in the project. In addition, the exterior modifications to the existing building as well as the connection between the existing facility and the new six bay garage will be completed. As funds and manpower permit, the interior modifications will be completed after the project reaches completion in the fall of 2005.