Abigail Ham
The Keene Sentinel, N.H.
(TNS)
At the Marlow fire station on a recent rainy evening, water creeps under the doors. In heavy storms, the garage and offices sometimes flood. The department’s four vehicles are parked side by side behind the two bay doors — getting one out is a bit like a giant slide puzzle. There’s no space to walk behind the fire trucks, and some of the vehicle’s side compartments can’t be opened. The ceiling is stained with black mold.
The station is at least 100 years old — old enough that the building was once a blacksmith’s shop. It was also once a car dealership and auto service center, which left the site with undrinkable water.
Despite these problems, Fire Chief Sean Brewer doesn’t foresee the station being replaced anytime soon. He said the cost of building a new fire station is prohibitive for the town, which is home to about 750 people.
The problem isn’t unique to Marlow. Several local towns, including Hinsdale, Westmoreland, Walpole and Swanzey, have faced a similar issue, with aging fire stations unable to handle modern equipment and meet new health standards while the high price tags of new or upgraded stations pose a major obstacle.
Carcinogen concerns
Concern for first responders’ health and safety is the top reason towns need to upgrade or replace their fire stations, according to architect Michael Petrovick, who has worked on municipal fire station projects throughout the Monadnock Region.
Firefighters are exposed to a variety of toxins and carcinogens on the job, from diesel particulates from the trucks to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, a group of more than 100 chemicals that can be released when materials burn, Petrovick said.
Firefighters are about 9 percent more likely to be diagnosed with cancer than the general public and about 14 percent more likely to die from it, according to research from the Centers for Disease Control’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
These risks have drawn attention from state lawmakers. In 2023, New Hampshire legislators passed Senate Bill 71, which designated cancer a “presumptive occupational disease” for firefighters. That designation makes it easier for firefighters diagnosed with cancer to access worker’s compensation benefits.
This year, legislators passed Senate Bill 352, setting aside $5 million to fund cancer screenings for firefighters.
To limit exposure to carcinogens, it’s important that firefighters are able to clean gear at the station immediately after returning from calls, according to Petrovick. Dirty gear stored in cars or washed at home can increase exposure.
The International Association of Fire Fighters and Firefighter Cancer Support Network’s best practices for reducing exposure to carcinogens recommend cleaning contaminated hoods, gloves, boots and helmets upon returning to the station. Ideally, personnel should also shower within an hour of coming back from a scene. In many small towns’ fire stations, following these recommendations is impossible.
Marlow’s station has no space for decontamination. The building doesn’t have a shower and has only one small bathroom. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Brewer said, EMTs used a garden hose in the parking lot to clean up after responding to calls.
While the mold, lack of water and exposure to dirty gear at the station are “definitely not healthy,” Brewer said he doesn’t worry about it too much because fire and EMS personnel don’t typically spend very long there. He is, however, concerned about what they’re bringing home with them on their gear after calls. “You get in your car after and don’t even think about what you’re dragging with you,” he said. “I’m concerned about their families’ health.”
More calls, but no more space
Space is a perennial problem for many older fire stations. Firefighting vehicles have increased in size since many stations were built, Petrovick said, forcing some towns to purchase expensive custom-built new vehicles or continue relying on older equipment.
With many towns’ populations’ growing in the decades since their stations were constructed, fire departments have more to do today than they did then. Swanzey’s fire station below the town hall on Old Homestead Highway, one of three in the town, was built in the 1960s, when the town’s population was about half what it is now, according to N.H. Economic and Labor Market Information Bureau statistics.
Many fire departments also have a larger scope of service now, responding to a wide variety of emergency situations and serving as town emergency operations centers. In some cases, this means stations don’t have space for the personnel and equipment needed to respond to the call volume they now manage.
Walpole’s station at 278 Main St. was built in 1990, when the department responded to about 54 calls per year. In 2023, the department responded to 753 calls, according to previous Sentinel reporting.
Similarly, Hinsdale’s station on Depot Street was built to accommodate fewer than 20 calls per year, according to a letter from the Hinsdale Fire Department that was shared with the town. The department, now averages about 550 calls annually.
In Marlow, lack of space does delay response times, according to Chief Brewer. “We have four trucks side by side behind two garage doors,” he said. To get one truck out, they sometimes have to move another vehicle first.
In addition, Brewer said the town’s aging population may result in an increased need for EMS services in the future. The station has nowhere to park a second ambulance or to host an overnight EMS crew, should that become necessary.
To build or not to build
Hinsdale voters approved money to purchase land for a new fire station in early September after a heated special town meeting and more than a decade of discussion. The current station was built in 1953; more than 70 years later, it’s nearing the end of its useful life. But many voters remained hesitant to move forward with plans for a new station, fearing tax increases and wanting more alternatives considered before committing the funds.
Voters approved spending about $400,000 from existing town funds to buy a plot of land on which to build, but they’ll still need about $5.6 million to convert the church that stands on the plot into a new fire station, according to current estimates from Petrovick’s firm.
By moving forward with plans for a new station, Hinsdale follows in the footsteps of Westmoreland, where voters approved a $2.4 million proposal in 2022.
The new 6,500-square foot station behind the old one on Route 163 opened this spring, resolving the safety problems that had plagued the former station, built in 1954, which had included issues with vehicle fume evacuation and not enough room for storing used gear. The lack of space forced firefighters to store gear in their vehicles, potentially increasing their exposure to carcinogens from scenes. The new station also has a heavy-duty washer and dryer specifically for cleaning firefighting gear.
Prior to 2022’s affirmative vote, a $2.3 million proposal for a new station failed in 2021 by three votes to reach the required supermajority — an experience familiar in Swanzey. Swanzey voters rejected plans for a new fire station to replace the one under the town hall at their annual town meeting this year in March. Plans for a new station have failed to reach the required three-fifths majority in Swanzey six times.
Although the station proposal again failed in March, voters did approve raising $200,000 to add to the town’s fire stations capital reserve fund, with $50,000 to come from taxes and the rest from undesignated fund balance. Voters also approved $300,000 in 2023 for the same fund. All that money will be set aside for when the town does approve a plan for a new station.
Hinsdale’s fire station, which has foundation problems and sits on soft soil, offered architects nothing to work with. To update the station, the town will need to start over at a new site. That’s not always the case, but renovations can be just as expensive as starting from scratch.
Voters at Walpole’s fire district annual meeting in March approved a $3.8 million renovation and addition for the town’s fire station, a proposal Fire Chief Mark Houghton said in May had been in the works since 2017. The plan includes a new emergency operations center for the department, which provides fire and EMS services to the town as well as mutual aid for several surrounding New Hampshire and Vermont communities. The proposal passed unanimously.
Peterborough’s new fire station is on budget and on schedule for a spring groundbreaking, the assistant town manager told the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript early this month. Voters approved the $11.7 million project on Elm Street and Route 101 at town meeting earlier this year, allowing the department to move ahead with plans to replace the converted 1940s garage they’ve been operating out of since 1972.
Finding funding
Now that Hinsdale voters have agreed to buy land for a new station, the town’s building committee can turn its attention to finding the money to actually build a new station on that property. The town has started applying for grants, Fire Chief Terry Zavorotny said, but does not yet have a timeline for the project.
Walpole received significant grant funding for its station upgrades — a precedent Hinsdale town officials hope to replicate. Of the $3.8 million needed for the Walpole project, $1,058,791 came from a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant. Since an expected $1 million USDA grant is still pending, renovations have not yet begun, according to fire officials in that town.
In Marlow, progress still looks far off.
Petrovick’s firm recently completed a feasibility study for Marlow that cost about $30,000 and looked at the possibility of a new build on a site next to the town’s transfer station on Route 10. The building, which would house both the fire/EMS and police departments, would cost about $4 million, according to Fire Chief Brewer.
But there’s currently no plan to bring that proposal before voters.
The town administrator has searched faithfully for grants, according to Brewer. Marlow was even offered a $1.2 million grant through U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster’s office, but Brewer said they’ll have to turn it down because they have no way to come up with the remainder of the cost.
“We’re pretty much dead in the water,” he said.
Nonetheless, he remains pragmatic about the situation. Asked how long the department can keep making the aging station work, he was matter-of-fact. “We have to make it work. The point where it becomes unworkable is when it actually falls down.”
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