Ten years ago, I visited a station in Kansas City that had a designated "tech" room for computers and other electronic systems requiring controlled temperatures that was located off the apparatus bay. A couple years ago, I saw that the new fire station in Elburn, IL, had a long counter in the apparatus bay, with portals to charge the two-way radios.
When I thought about it, I haven’t seen designated rooms or other “tech" areas on the station layouts submitted for Station Design Awards. Am I missing something? I remember hearing that miles of wire were run throughout the fire stations for "computers and technology." Is everything Wi-Fi or Bluetooth now? I decided to reach out to two award-winning architects to learn the latest on technical wiring in public safety facilities today.
Architect Jeff Katz of Jeff Katz Architecture explained, "One of the biggest changes since we started designing fire stations is the amount of room that needs to be dedicated to technology." Our IT room, as we call it, typically ends up accommodating three racks worth of equipment. Items which are controlled through the various IT systems include, but aren’t limited to: phones, dispatch/communications equipment, HVAC systems, lighting and lighting control panels and building security (cameras, door card readers, etc.)."
According to Katz, these rooms also typically house the incoming phone/cable/fiber service, fire alarm controls, and even fire sprinkler panels. “These rooms always require dedicated HVAC systems. Typically we stay away from putting things in this room that require regular access, such as radios, because we want to limit the foot traffic into any space that has the ‘brains’ of the operation in it," Katz said.
In the Midwest, IT rooms are called data closets. Architect Michael Clark with Five Bugles Design explained, "Data closets are common spaces in most buildings today, which may be why you don’t hear much about them when talking specifically about fire stations. But that is not to say that there are not technology-related challenges."
Clark believes that technology does need to be a major focus of the owner’s attention in the early phases of a project. There are many overlapping systems that require power and data connections, spread around the building that typically have one or two locations where the head-end equipment is centralized … in other words, data closets. Those centralized locations need to have raceways for services to come in to the building and raceways for the services to be distributed to equipment throughout the building.
Besides the hub of the building automation that Katz described, he is seeing an increased need for support spaces for the technology used by the department in their day to day operations outside the station. Katz says items which need to be accommodated include: radios; cell phones; infrared scanners/thermal imaging cameras (even in helmet units); drones and robots (even autonomous vehicles); portable power tools (which require batteries to be charged); personal location devices; laptops and WI-FI hotspots.
Katz added, "The above items don’t necessarily need to be in a dedicated HVAC system, as the station system could handle these loads. However, the power and data demands of this equipment needs to be accommodated, as do the physical space requirements to store them. As batteries get stronger, we will continue to see a transition from some of the gas-powered tools used on the apparatus to battery powered tools and this will bring an increase in the number of batteries to be stored and charged (I have the same issue in my garage at home – how many batteries do you need to make sure you always have one with a full charge?)."
The systems required to support today’s communication, response, safety and security systems has advanced far beyond what was conceivable decades ago.
"Technology is an often invisible presence in our lives. Pieces of electronics sitting on desks with power cords that vanish to commune with the dust bunnies behind the furniture, unless you are trying to add a piece of equipment to an existing or completed building," said Clark. “Suddenly that small, unobtrusive, yet critical cabling can become surface-mounted conduits on once pristine walls or spaghetti nests of above ceiling cables and unsightly equipment sitting out on shelves in inappropriate locations."
Katz believes the fire and emergency services have more tech challenges ahead. “I have also heard about other smart equipment like smart turnouts, etc., that will be coming out that will have additional storage and charging requirements," he said. "I believe that AI and Virtual Reality will find its way into the fire service, too, and we don’t yet know what impact that will have on storage and power needs."
For now, Michael Clark shared several tips to consider when designing or renovating an emergency response facility:
- It is never too soon to start thinking about technology. Catalogue your needs (in the RFP, if possible) so the design team knows the extent of work you are planning and their role, including connecting your building to an existing city-wide fiber optic network, local cable and communications (emergency and non-emergency) needs, alerting systems, building security, including cameras and intrusion detection, access control, intercom and paging, wireless access points, surge protection systems, and UPS battery back-up.
- If you have an IT expert available, bring them to early meetings.
- Consider whether all the services you need are available at your building site or if there is a need to extend services beyond the property line.
- Insist on extra conduits from data closets and mechanical spaces to centralized locations on each floor of the building. Do the same with conduits from mechanical and data spaces to property lines on the site as well to unobtrusive rooftop locations.
- Data closets are a necessity in most installations. Plan for one data rack for station data needs (fiber access, computers and communications) and a second for alerting systems, access control and building security systems. Plan extra space for expected expansion in this room, if not now then for the future.
- Alerting systems come in a variety of levels of complexity. This is particularly important if this, or any other system, is to be an owner-provided item; the design team can provide raceways for systems provided by other consultants or contractors if they know where to put them.
- Data closets may require a separate cooling system from the rest of the building due to concentrated loads.
- Don’t forget battery-powered equipment that needs charging. Consider extra power or future conduits to PPE gear storage, equipment storage rooms and watch/communications rooms.
At a recent presentation on telematics at a conference in Scottsdale, AZ, the speaker gave an example of the future of emergency response, with integrated use of communications and information technology to transmit, store and receive information between emergency vehicles, fire stations and buildings.
Whether you call it an IT room or data closet, designing for future technology will be a challenge.
