Chapel Hill Fire Department’s newest ladder truck is doing a test run of its ladder. Clifton Brooks, who has been with the department for almost two years, mans the ladder from the bucket in the air.
“You’ve got to be kind of careful because it can be kind of touchy,” he said as the ladder was makings its way higher. “You might feel it once [the mechanisms] start extending.”
The truck was parked outside of the new Fire Station 2 for the tests. It is typically housed in its bay next to another fire engine and an Orange County EMS vehicle. Just a few years ago, there would not have been space for all those emergency vehicles. Now, the building that sits on Hamilton Road looks very different from the one originally built there in 1959.
Chapel Hill Fire Department has been in the new station since July 2018. Fire chief Matt Sullivan says he very pleased with how the construction turned out and what the station offers to the department.
“It’s just a really nice space,” says Sullivan. “It values the work our folks do every day.”
The station is the product of a $3.3 million public-private partnership between the town and East West Partners, the developing company who built the station and the adjacent office building. Chapel Hill owns the station and its plot of land, while East West owns the new office building and parking deck around it.
The station was updated to accommodate the modern needs of firefighters, one of the biggest being cancer prevention. Contaminants on gear and exhaust from the trucks lead firefighters to have a higher risk of getting cancer, but Fire Station 2 addresses the causes of those issues. A high-powered washer and drier exclusively for the firefighter’s gear are in a separate room from the normal laundry room. Unlike many stations, there also is a separate room for fire suits instead of in the bay with the trucks. Sullivan says getting the gear in its own room to organize the bay and keep it fresh was a big focus during design.
“By keeping our gear in a less-sunlit and cooler storage area,” he says, “it will last longer and protect our people better. It also doesn’t get contaminants from the exhaust of a fire trucks pulling out of the station.”
It also now has more inclusive living accommodations. Instead of one bunking room where all the crew sleeps, each member has their own dorm room with a bed, shelves and a closet.
In addition, many of the amenities for life outside of fighting fires are updated. Fire Station 2 has a weight room so its crew can exercise and a large common area where the firefighters can relax and eat together. A kitchen big enough for all four shifts connects to it, with an outdoor deck space and grill just steps away. Even the fire poles are updated with sensors that open the hatch down to the bay with the trucks.
Along the walls are photographs of Chapel Hill’s fire department throughout its history. Pictures of old training exercises, rescues, and even a station dalmatian show the current firefighters how life was for previous ones and allow retired members to reminisce about their days at the stations. Sullivan points out side-by-side photos of Fire Station 2 when the original building was constructed in 1959 and its new building.
“You can see the town had just purchased that ladder truck [in 1959],” he says. “Then in 2018, we moved in here and had just purchased a ladder truck too. So, there’s some of the ‘here and then.’”
As the crew lowers the ladder and backs the fire truck into the station, Sullivan says – while the photos are a good reminder of the station’s past – they always want to look towards the future.
“Some folks still relish the old days of the old station,” Sullivan said, “but change is inevitable. If we’re not changing, we’re falling behind.”
For Brooks, Station 2’s amenities and updated features are nice. But he says the most important part is it still allows the crews to create bonds with each other.
“We make sure we all sit down and eat together; we’ll play games, watch TV,” said Brooks. “It’s almost like every other station, just bigger, because we really believe in family time and spending time together.”
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Chapel Hill Fire was nice enough to let myself and others from Pitt County EMS who were on a deployment after Hurricane Frances to a shelter on the campus of UNC-CH to come by Station 2 and take a break and shower. It is an excellent facility and one that the department and community should be proud off.