Inside the Planning for Beulah's Brand New, State of the Art Firehouse

 

Exterior Elevations of the soon to be constructed Beulah Fire Station from the latest design drawings 

The work toward constructing a new, modern, state of the art fire house in Beulah is moving ahead.  According to staff, the 95% design drawings will be completed by the early April.

Meanwhile, I have requested and have now received the most recent drawings for this project that illustrate how the facility is being envisioned by the architect who is designing it.

Interestingly--this same design will be utilized at both of the new firehouses that are to be constructed in Escambia County over the next two years (one in Beulah, one in Pleasant Grove).  The rationale for using one common design and then "site-adapting" that same design to the location for construction is that it saves time, effort, and resources.  For the end user, it creates a uniform space with which to work.  Bottom Line:  It saves taxpayer money on design--and is a very smart way to go because we're building two stations and it creates an economy of scale.

Building highlights:

The currently envisioned floorplan of the soon to be constructed Beulah Fire house 

The highlights of the new facility include a size of 14,502 SF, four truck bays, with a high-bay size capable of accommodating the largest apparatus in ECFR.  Additional facility components include office spaces, 8 bunk rooms, four large bathrooms with showers, a day room, a large training room, and two EMS ready rooms.  In addition to this, the facility will have a large modern kitchen as well as large laundry and gear storage rooms.  The design of this new "prototypical" station was made with input from a committee that included planning, facilities and ECFR (paid and volunteer) personnel--with the aim of capturing all the necessary requirements for the crews that will man this station. 

Due to the irregular lot size in Beulah (a "flag-lot"--with a narrow strip on the southern boundary on 9-Mile Road and a wider width further in toward the northern boundary)-the initial plan is to build the facility set-back from the front, utilizing the narrow southern portion along with an ingress/egress easement for accessing 9-Mile Road.

The existing lot size and dimensions for the Beulah station will present a challenge.  But to overcome the conditions planners are designing access that conforms to the lot's dimensions, as illustrated above.  Additionally, I am told that when we get our 95% drawings in early April,  The retention pond may have to be more linear and nearer to the front of the lot-due to the fact that a wet pond may be required instead of the dry pond that had initially been envisioned for the site.  We will see what that looks like after the soils engineers do the calculations.

I'm excited to see the final plans, and I am very happy that the men and women volunteer firefighters in Beulah, along with the potential day-shift paid crew we are working to fund, will finally be getting a modern station with everything they need to continue to provide fire protection for our community!

Much more to come in the next several months!