Sept. 03--Highland Park firefighters are out of their temporary quarters and into a new, $2.7-million fire station that has taken years to build.
Just across the street from the old, condemned fire station on Gerald just east of Woodward stands their new, 14,000-square-foot fire station at 25 Gerald, built with federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds.
Thirty firefighters and their leader, Chief Derek Hillman, moved there Thursday from an industrial park on Oakland.
After the original firehouse was deemed uninhabitable eight years ago, the department had been housed in a cavernous, old warehouse with a trailer for a kitchen. Firefighters slept, watched TV and hung out -- literally -- in a shantytown of plywood rooms the firefighters built in their spare time.
"It was a great feeling to wake up to a clean building and not a dark warehouse that looked like we were living in a haunted house," firefighter Dammeon Player said Friday after their first night sleeping in the new building. "It's just like buying a new home. The guys are excited. Some guys stayed over even though they weren't on the clock."
They now can pull their three fire trucks and one EMS truck into a garage with epoxy, terrazzo-type floors, lined with bright-red gear lockers for the firefighters.
Instead of in a construction trailer, firefighters will cook, eat and gather in a kitchen with cherry cabinets and black granite counters or on a patio with a gas grill hookup. There's a training room, a chief's office, reception area, radio room and basic but accommodating locker rooms and sleeping quarters -- all lacking in the warehouse.
"As you can see, this is amazing," Hillman said, walking around the new space. "It's cool, but I'm proud of the guys more than anything. They deserve this. Very, very hardworking guys."
The grant paid for the building and infrastructure, but donations are covering much of what goes inside, many solicited by Wayne State University Police dispatcher Blake Govan.
Sutphen, an Ohio fire truck manufacturing company, donated a 60-inch flat-screen TV for the main living room.
The Terry Farrell Firefighters Fund, a philanthropic all-volunteer group named after a New York City Fire Department firefighter killed on 9/11, donated 10 beds and five leather recliners, worth $14,000.
"When I saw the trailer, I said, 'You gotta be kidding me,' " said retired New York firefighter Brian Farrell, Terry Farrell's brother and the group's organizer. "It's our pleasure."
Firefighters themselves are bringing in their old workout equipment to use in the new workout area, a mezzanine overlooking the fire bays.
Highland Park Fire Department crews respond to an average of 1,000 runs a year, including 150 structure fires, car accidents, medical calls and hazardous material calls, among other things. The department provides coverage for about 12,000 residents.
Hillman said he hopes the new fire station is a catalyst for renewal in Highland Park.
"It's a good feeling that good things are happening in the city," he said. "Some real positives are coming this way."
Copyright 2013 - Detroit Free Press
