Aug. 03 -- NORTHBOROUGH, MA -- Firefighters who need to get around the fire station bays on Pierce Street have to be contortionists of a sort because of the tight squeeze between the trucks and ambulances.
The building was not designed for the number -- or size -- of modern fire vehicles, Fire Chief David Parenti said. The department has evolved from a call staff when the building first opened in in 1974 to an agency having 20 full-time firefighters, who work 24-hour shifts.
The trucks are stacked in double-depth bays.
"It's a different department," Parenti said. "With all the trucks out it looks like we have plenty of room, but when they're all in it's very difficult to move around."
The department, alongside the town's Fire Station Feasibility Study Committee, is looking into an addition or expansion or moving to a new building elsewhere. Experts are doing a feasibility study with $75,000 approved under the town's capital improvement plan.
Preliminary cost estimates range from $7 million to $9 million, depending if the town needs to buy land, according to the plan. The studies started under former chief Fire Chief David Durgin, who retired in 2015.
The building needs a new heating and cooling system, roof work, and electrical and plumbing improvements.
Parenti said the committee visited a number of different recently opened stations, including ones in Holden, Westborough, Uxbridge, Belmont and Newton.
The station's community room is now filled with the department workout equipment, because the gym was converted into a dorm. The station does not have accommodations for female firefighters.
Some equipment, including the town's new forestry truck, is stored in a wooden garage in the parking lot.
Parenti said the town is reviewing bids from landowners willing to sell land for a station.
Johnson Roberts Associates, of Somerville, which is conducting the study, worked with the town on its library project about a decade ago.
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