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Elk River Fire Department <br />Elk River, MN <br />Fire Station Feasibility and Facilities Study <br /> <br />Five Bugles Design <br />A Division of Wendel Companies <br /> <br />well in its role as a fire station. There are however several challenges at this facility that should be <br />addressed: <br />Staff Support Spaces: There are no spaces dedicated to the support of the Paid-On-Call staff such as Day <br />Room, lockers and showers, equipment and personnel decontamination, office/living spaces. Paid-On- <br />Call staff provide a great value to the City of Elk River. Providing spaces for them to clean up after fire <br />calls and drills, to share a meal and decompress are critical to the physical and emotional health of the <br />department. Creating spaces that the department wants to and can use at all hours provides the City with <br />a ‘manned’ facility, greatly reducing response times. <br />Personnel and Equipment Decontamination Spaces – Recent studies related to the prevalence of cancers <br />within the fire service is raising awareness of the contaminants released during fire events. Proper <br />decontamination of equipment and personnel. Station No. 1 does not have appropriate facilities for current <br />best practices. Installation of such might be cost prohibitive given the facilities age. Some of the specific <br />challenges include: <br /> No showers or personnel decontamination spaces. <br /> Turnout gear is stored in the apparatus bays leading to increased contamination. <br /> Space for cleaning of gear, including trucks is limited, and shared with other uses. <br /> No direct vent exhaust available for trucks. <br />Training: The Department’s training program has been very successful and is seen as a revue generating <br />program in the future. This will require expansion of the training room. There is currently no onsite <br />physical training capability, nor is there room on site. This activity should be provided at other new <br />stations as they are constructed. <br />RECOMMENDATIONS <br />Recommendation No. 1: Add support spaces (office, dayroom, kitchen, showers and lockers) similar to <br />those recommended for the new East Station. This will allow the department to continue with best <br />practices in their operations. <br />Recommendation No. 2: Implementation of Recommendation No. 1 will construct a kitchen at this <br />facility as part of the addition. The existing kitchen area can then be used to enlarge the training room. <br />88