HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016 03-03 Fire trucks will parade to new station today PIONEER PRESS 3/3/2016 Main
Fire trucks will parade to new station today
Bayport
By Mary Divine
mdivine pioneeLl2ress.com
A parade of fire trucks their lights flashing and sirens wailing will mark the Bayport Fire
Department's move to its new $5.6 million fire station today.
The parade will begin at 5 p.m. at the current station just west of Bayport City Hall and proceed a mile
east to 1012 Fifth Ave. N., where firefighters and their families will welcome the trucks to their new
home, Fire Chief Allen Eisinger said.
The 17,000-square-foot station, more than twice the size of the old station, was built on 4.2 acres
previously farmed by inmates at the Minnesota Correctional Facility - Stillwater.
The station, which has a red and silver color scheme, features five bays, a training room, an emergency
operations center, offices, a day room, dorm rooms, a kitchen, an exercise room, a patio, laundry
facilities and a display area for the department's historic artifacts.
The bay area, where the department's 11 vehicles and trailers will be parked, features in-floor radiant
heating, a huge improvement over the traditional, forced-air system in the old station, Eisinger said.
"It's tough in Minnesota because when you come back from a fire in the winter, as soon as we pull them
in, they're frozen solid until they heat up,"he said of the trucks.
"Radiant heat from the floor heats it up faster, so it thaws out the trucks much faster. We're able to get
the trucks back in service faster, and stuff is drying out faster."
Eisinger said the new station is in a much safer location. Going out on fire calls at the old station across
the street from Andersen Elementary School was dangerous and difficult, he said.
"It's a very congested area, so it was hard to get the trucks in and out,"he said. "It was especially
stressful when we had a working structure fire. We're trying to get guys there, and they're parking in the
middle of the street, and we're trying to get trucks out safely. We had a lot of close calls."
The cramped quarters meant "guys were getting dressed right next to trucks that were leaving," Eisinger
said. "It was just dangerous, dangerous, dangerous."
The new space is so large that training exercises, pump inspections and fire hose testing activities that
used to have to take place off-site can now be done on-site, Eisinger said. "Now we won't have to
make that hour drive (to Maplewood) for training," he said. "And we'll be able to cover the area while
we're doing it."
The training area features a safer, more controlled environment for training, especially for new recruits.
Two manhole covers, for example, are on a second-floor area so firefighters "can practice going down
into a sewer or a lift station or any confined space,"the chief said.
The training area also features a room that can be filled with smoke, a balcony, windows, industrial
sprinklers, and a metal-framed doorway to practice bashing in. A makeshift roof has even been
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constructed.
"This will have plywood put on it," Eisinger said of the roof space. "We practice laddering it and practice
ventilation techniques with an ax or chain saw."
The 22-member volunteer fire department covers an area from Minnesota 36 to Interstate 94 and
Manning Avenue and the St. Croix River. Last year, it responded to 1,234 calls.
The department also provides mutual aid to fire departments in Washington County and Wisconsin.
Bayport paid up to $2 million from its reserves for the station; public and private grants covered $1.4
million. The remaining $2.2 million has been paid by the communities the department serves Oak
Park Heights, West Lakeland Township, Bayport and Baytown Township, based on the number of calls
and taxable market value.
Designed by Minneapolis architecture firm Leo A Daly, the station was built to handle future needs,
including the possible hiring of full-time firefighters, Eisinger said.
Plans for the old station are being worked out, said city administrator Logan Martin. The city council
would like to lease the space to a nonprofit group or a retail or business operation, he said.
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