Greenfield Fire Department moves into new station on Main Street
Published: 05-23-2024 6:34 PM |
GREENFIELD — The Fire Department fully moved into its new station at 41 Main St. Thursday night, leaving behind the temporary station on Hope Street that it has occupied since the 412 Main St. station was demolished in 2021.
The move marks the completion of a more than two-year, approximately $21.7 million project, which Fire Chief Robert Strahan said will result in faster fire response in the west and northwest regions of Greenfield.
“It’ll just be easier for us to respond. We’ll probably be able to save a minute or so just by getting to the trucks versus the distance you have to travel now from the trailers to the tent,” Strahan said. “We should see an improvement in that for sure.”
Walking through the new station this week, Strahan noted that many of its design elements, such as the keystones in the front entrance arch and a few windows on the station’s facade, were taken from the department’s original 412 Main St. station. Strahan said the Fire Department even changed the location’s address from 39 to 41 Main St., as an homage to the original station.
The new station also features a number of new facilities, such as an emergency operations center equipped with Zoom capabilities, a backup fire dispatch center, and a training wall for firefighters to practice rappelling on a mock building wall and entering through a window for upper-level rescue drills.
“All of this is new to us, we’ve never had these capabilities before — we had a small training room at the old firehouse, basically a desk and a chair, but no technology or anything like this,” he said.
The new station project, including the costs associated with establishing the department’s temporary station on Hope Street, was originally budgeted to the tune of about $21.7 million. Although its cost-to-date sits at roughly $18.83 million, Project Manager Neil Joyce said the price will be near its original budget as the final construction bills come in.
The city of Greenfield previously allocated about $2 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to the building’s construction, along with a $970,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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Alongside all of the station’s new equipment, the facility brings relics from the past with a small museum that houses an 1850s Hunneman Handtub fire pump. The new station also houses the department’s original fire pole, though it’s now used mainly for training purposes.
Strahan noted that the facility houses a laundry and detoxification room, allowing firefighters arriving from a scene to wash hazardous substances off their uniforms.
“Everything in this firehouse that we built, we built with the safety of the firefighters in mind. We really want to really eliminate any carcinogens or any biohazards or anything like that. ... We encourage our firefighters to do their laundry here so they’re not bringing their uniforms home and doing it in their own laundry rooms,” Strahan said.
The Fire Department will hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 11 a.m. on Monday, June 10, followed by an open house on Saturday, June 15, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., during which the public can tour the building.
“We’re pretty excited. We really want to get to the point where we can open it up for the community to see their firehouse,” Strahan said. “The Fire Department is very humbled by the support of the city and its residents.”
Anthony Cammalleri can be reached at acammalleri@recorder.com or 413-930-4429.