What we build · Fire Stations
A Building That Is Also a Home
Apparatus bays, living quarters and a structure that has to launch a response during the event everybody else is sheltering from.
The facility type, whether it is a new build or a hardening project, and the procurement route. That is enough to start.
Operational
Not "survives the storm" — works during and after it
Category IV
A different design standard, not a higher one
Public work
Bonded, documented, formally administered
Licensed
General contractor, licensed in the state of Florida
Three buildings sharing one envelope
A station is a heavy vehicle garage, a set of living quarters and a hardened operational facility at once. Each has different requirements for structure, air, acoustics and finish, and the interfaces between them — particularly between the apparatus bay and where people sleep — are where stations are done badly.
What has to work
- Apparatus bay doors, which are large openings in a hardened envelope.
- Exhaust extraction, so diesel does not reach living quarters.
- Acoustic and air separation between bay and quarters.
- Decontamination, which modern practice takes seriously.
- Backup power carrying the whole facility, not just lights.
How we handle it
- 01Detail the bay-to-quarters separation properly at design.
- 02Install exhaust extraction and verify it works.
- 03Build apparatus doors to the required wind and impact standard.
- 04Provide decontamination areas as specified.
- 05Commission backup power under full load.
Get the bay-to-quarters separation right. Diesel exhaust, noise and contaminants crossing into living space is the complaint that persists for the life of the building, and it is fixed at design for very little and effectively unfixable afterwards.
Said plainly
Where we stop
Apparatus bay doors are large openings in a hardened envelope and they are expensive to do properly. Value engineering them defeats the hardening of everything around them, and we will say so.
FAQ
Common questions
- What is most often done badly?
- The separation between apparatus bay and living quarters — exhaust, noise and contaminants.
- Are bay doors part of the hardening?
- They are the largest openings in the envelope. Downgrading them defeats everything around them.
- Does backup power carry the whole station?
- It should. Lights alone is not an operational facility.
- Is decontamination a real requirement?
- Modern practice treats it seriously and it should be designed in.
Requirements
The Operational Standard
Building codes assign essential facilities a higher risk category, and the intent is that they keep working — not simply that they do not collapse.
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The Envelope
The envelope is the difference between a building that keeps working and one that is open to weather with everything inside it ruined.
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Power
Backup power for an essential facility means running the whole operation for a realistic duration, not keeping the lights on.
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Utilities & Communications
A facility with power and no water, or no communications, is not operational. Both are frequently designed to ordinary standards.
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Public Procurement
Most essential facilities are public projects, which brings a formal process that shapes how the work is bought and administered.
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More what we build
EMS Facilities
Ambulance bays, supply and medication storage, crew quarters, and a layout that does not cost seconds on the way out.
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Emergency Operations Centers
Where a county or city coordinates its response. It has to be habitable, powered, connected and staffed through the worst of it.
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Shelters
Purpose-built shelters and buildings — frequently schools — designed or retrofitted to shelter standard.
Read more →
Next step
Find out what is actually wrong with it.
An inspection, photographs of what we found, and a written scope. If the honest answer is that it can wait another season, that is the answer you will get.