By Alan M. Petrillo
Prosper (TX) Fire Rescue’s old Central Fire Station had been built at a time when Prosper was a combination department with very few full-time firefighters. But after the 27-square-mile city, located 40 miles north of Dallas, started averaging 10% growth every year, the city decided to build a new Central Fire Station on the site of a Public Safety Complex.
Stuart Blasingame, Prosper’s fire chief, says the city has seen a lot of residential and commercial growth, and also is home to a large children’s hospital. He notes that current fire staffing includes 80 paid full-time firefighters, administrative staff, a fire marshal, division chiefs, and an emergency management coordinator. “The old central station didn’t have enough room for all of us,” Blasingame points out. “So we did a needs assessment and chose to build a new Central Fire Station in the geographic middle of town. We got bids from architects for a Construction Manager at Risk project and chose BRW Architects to design the new station.”
Stephen Hilt, principal at BRW Architects, says the Prosper Fire Station No. 1 and Fire Administration building is phase two of a public safety campus, adjacent to the phase one police station that BRW also designed. He notes that the fire station’s first floor houses the working, living and training spaces, including five apparatus bays (one back-in and four drive-through double deep bays), and accommodations for 10 firefighters and two captains in individual dorm rooms. Firefighters have access to four unisex toilet/shower rooms, while the captains share a toilet/shower facility.
Off the apparatus bays are a decon/extractor room, shop, storage rooms, EMS storage room, laundry, and a turnout gear storage room connected directly to a restroom for dual use as the fire station’s required tornado shelter, hardened to ICC-500 standards. The station has a training room that can be accessed from the public lobby, and includes a kitchenette and break-out space. A treatment room connects the lobby to the station’s first bay, which is used as an ambulance bay.
Hilt points out that the station’s second floor houses the fire administration, fire marshal, and emergency management functions, including a conference room that doubles as an Emergency Operations Center that can host other town departments during an emergency or other events requiring multi-departmental coordination. He adds that features traditional to fire houses and Prosper Fire Rescue in particular include a brass fire pole for quick descents from the administrative offices, and a fireplace located centrally in the firefighter living quarters, while a unique feature is the physical training room that’s isolated from the main structure in order to solve noise and vibration issues which would have affected the second floor inhabitants.
Carol Ann Kesler, executive associate for BRW Architects, says the new fire station follows a similar architectural design and materials palette as the adjacent police building. “Wood look aluminum soffits bring warmth to the materials palette and complement the stone, red brick, and dark cement stucco,” Kesler points out. “A deep roof overhang with fin-like column pilasters soften the transition from a lower to higher light level, which will provide time for the eye to adjust as the fire apparatus exit toward Safety Way.”
Kesler notes that internally, materials are focused on function, efficiency, durability, and sustainability. “Wellness of the inhabitants is of the utmost importance,” she says, “with daylight and views providing a connection to nature, while architectural shading components provide further protection, allowing a connection with the environment.”
Blasingame says that the station’s sixth apparatus bay showcases the department’s 911 Memorial Museum which has an 85-inch video screen that plays 24 hours daily paying tribute to the 9/11 responders. The bay also houses a World Trade Center steel beam recovered from the site and mounted on a trailer that can be taken to memorial events around the area.
ALAN M. PETRILLO is a Tucson, Arizona-based journalist, the author of three novels and five nonfiction books, and a member of the Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment Editorial Advisory Board. He served 22 years with the Verdoy (NY) Fire Department, including in the position of chief.
