This station received the Shared Facilities Bronze Award in Firehouse's 2015 Station Design Awards. Find the full list of winners here.
The Brambleton Public Safety Center in Brambleton, VA, is home to Loudoun County Fire and Rescue Station 9, the Arcola Volunteer Fire Department. The five acre site is also home to the county fire marshal’s office.
The firehouse consists of a three-bay drive-through garage with bi-fold exit doors and sectional overhead return doors. All dirty work areas, workshops, decontamination area, hose storage and PPE storage areas are placed remotely from the living quarters. The PPE storage is designed with a self-contained HVAC system that directs cool supply air up and through the gear and, and is exhausted through a heat exchanger.
A training tower is included as part of the design to allow for upper level extraction, a rappelling and rope skills and a stair for hoseline training.
The bunks are divided into separate spaces that coordinate with the specific apparatus being used by the personnel, to allow for localized station alerting.
The fire marshal’s office contains both planning and inspection services, plus arson investigation, including the bomb squad.
Areas include apparatus bay space for secure storage of specialized equipment and vehicles, evidence storage, explosives storage (remote from the building), interview and investigation offices. The facility also includes administrative offices, bunk rooms, and a K9 kennel and runs for the detection dogs.
The central entrance to the building leads to a large meeting room for use by the fire service, volunteers, and is open for community use. A covered rear parking area is used by the volunteers for their child seat installation program.
The facility includes geothermal heating/cooling, radiant floor heating in the bays, water harvesting for use in training and vehicle wash down.
Architect: Bignell Watkins Hasser Architects
