Colo. Firefighters Train in To-Be-Demolished Station
Source Daily Camera, Boulder, Colo.
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Jan. 14--Inside Rocky Mountain Fire Station 1, the windows are broken and the walls are caved in. Chunks of the ceiling lie on the floor.
The damage is not the work of a demolition crew, but the firefighters themselves.
With the station at 7700 Baseline Road in Boulder County scheduled for demolition at the end of the month, crews have turned their fire station into a temporary training facility.
"We're getting ready to do a full rebuild of the station," said Deputy Chief Sterling Folden. "We're taking advantage of the fact that the building is going to be torn down."
In 2009, voters approved a measure that allowed the Rocky Mountain Fire Protection District -- which serves Superior, Eldorado Springs, Marshall and Flagstaff Mountain -- to borrow $9.7 million to pay for building improvements at four stations.
Station 1 was built in 1967 and remodeled in 1999, but officials say the crews have outgrown it. After it's torn down, a larger station will be built in the same location with larger living quarters and more equipment storage.
Free to do whatever they want to the empty building, firefighters have been able to break down doors, shatter windows and punch holes in the roof, all things they might need to do in case of a real structure fire.
Lt. Chuck Mora said the crews respond to only about three or four structure fires a year, so the practice helps keep their skills sharp.
"These fires are high-risk and low-frequency, so we really depend on this practice," he said. "It's been a great opportunity for the department."
Before they were able to use the fire station, Mora said, crews would have to pay for a burn building and pay replacement firefighters to cover for those in training. At the fire station, the firefighters can run their training exercises while on their normal shift.
"This way, everything is contained in one location," Mora said. "There are huge cost benefits, and it gives us more time to practice."
On Friday afternoon, with the help of a smoke machine, firefighters practiced breaking through a door and locating a fire in the building, then opening windows and breaking holes in the roof to vent the fire.
Firefighters have also simulated finding and rescuing people trapped in fires, removing drywall and forcing their way through different types of doors.
Mora said it has been strange for some of the longtime firefighters to see the building being torn apart.
"We had a 35-year volunteer stop by the other day, and it was kind of sentimental for him," Mora said. "A lot of the firefighters who came through this department have dropped in."
During construction, crews will be stationed at a temporary location on nearby Cherryvale Road.
The new station will have expanded living and training areas, including a rock wall where crews can train for climbing rescues. But until the new station opens up, they plan to take full advantage of their old station -- or whatever is left of it.
"The whole building is coming down, so they told us not to leave anything," said Mora, who added that the firefighters have been having some fun with their drills.
"The guys were pretty excited to start breaking stuff in the chief's office," he joked.
Contact Camera Staff Writer Mitchell Byars at 303-473-1329 or [email protected].
