Hughes Group Architects faced challenges in designing and building a new station for the Nokesville (VA) Volunteer Fire & Rescue Department including several site issues and the need to keep the old station in operation during the construction of the new one. The firm rose to the occasion and overcame each of them.
Mark Engman, president of the Nokesville Volunteer Fire & Rescue Department, says Station 5 was constructed in 1967 and was staffed by a single paid firefighter at a time when the area was all rural, with more horses and cows than people, and most of the roads were dirt. In the early 1980s, with lots of residential development happening in the area, the department put an addition onto Station 5, adding a community room, day room, kitchen, and dining area as well as a second floor for male and female bunk rooms. “When we finally tore it down and replaced it with the new station, it was housing four full-time paid firefighters, and in the apparatus bays were an engine, a tanker (tender), a squad (light rescue), and an ambulance,” Engman points out.
1 Hughes Group Architects designed and built Station 5 for the Nokesville (VA) Volunteer Fire & Rescue Department. (Photos courtesy of Hughes Group Architects.)
2 There are three drive-through, double-deep apparatus bays.
3 The day room.
4 The kitchen and dining area.
Lynn Reda, principal at Hughes Group Architects, says that Nokesville owned property abutting the site of the then-current Station 5 and didn’t want to move to temporary quarters while the new station was being built on the site. “We had to locate the new station on the property without encroaching on the operations of the existing station,” Reda observes. “Also, there is a cell phone tower on the property that couldn’t be disturbed, and a railroad runs parallel to the front of the station, so we had to put the bunk rooms on the back side of the new facility.”
Reda says the department also had an existing metal building for storage of department supplies and extra equipment, so Hughes Group had to maintain access to the storage building.
“The road elevation is higher than the property, and the old station only had a 25-foot-long apron, so there were flooding issues in the apparatus bays,” she says. “We located the new Station 5 farther back on the property and higher than the road, with a full French drain along the ramp so no water can come into the apparatus bays. We were able to provide a full bailout lane all around the station and give full access to fueling, a dumpster, the cell tower, and a generator at the rear of the new station.”
Hughes Group also included a new community room that can handle 50 people, along with a small warming kitchen in the new Station 5. “The community hall is completely separate from the fire station but can be accessed through a connecting door,” Reda points out. “The community hall has its own parking area too.”
5 Architectural elements from the rural ambiance of the area were incorporated into the new station.
6 One of the four-bed dorm rooms.
7 The PPE storage area has its own HVAC system.
8 The locker areas lead to the restroom and showers.
The newly designed Station 5 is a single-story structure that has three double-deep, drive-through apparatus bays that have direct capture vehicle exhaust systems.
On the opposite side of the apparatus bays from the living spaces are a decon room with an extractor/washer and dryer with an exhaust system that pulls fresh air in from the outside and expels contaminated air to the exterior and a personal protective equipment (PPE) storage room, with its own dedicated heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system.
Reda says the living quarters of the station have a positive pressure HVAC system that prevents particulate contaminants from entering the spaces. Bunk rooms include two four-bed rooms and three two-bed rooms with six beds assigned to males and six to females, with a two-person bunk room designated for either males or females depending on the staffing need. Station 5 also has a day room that’s open to a dining room and kitchen, with an outdoor patio off the dining room, a large fitness room, three private offices, a watch/radio room, and a work room/office.
Engman says the new Station 5 has a three-story concrete and steel tower for training. “Stairs are on the apparatus bay level leading to the second-floor mezzanine, where we store backup PPE and other equipment; the third level takes us onto the roof of the apparatus bays. The mezzanine has a portable confined space box, and the mezzanine’s railing has a gate in it to allow firefighters to practice rope and ladder work.”
Engman says the new Station 5 now houses two engines, a tanker, a brush truck, and two ambulances, staffed by five full-time paid firefighters. The department has 98 full-time paid EMT/paramedic firefighters on staff in the county’s five fire stations. Nokesville has the largest first-due area in Prince William County in terms of Nokesville’s 72-square-mile response district, Engman notes, and also protects the county’s fire academy and police academy.
Reda says because Station 5 is situated in an agricultural area, Hughes Group tried to give the structure a look that would fit in with the community. “We took gables and elements like a hoist that are barn-like and incorporated them into the exterior of the station and used brick, siding, and decorative brackets to blend in with other buildings in the community and finished the structure with a standing seam metal roof,” she says.
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.
