The city of Boston and the Boston (MA) Fire Department recently invested $23.5 million in a new 23,000-square-foot station in Roxbury that’s the first new fire station the city has built in the past 30 years.
The new station has three extended apparatus bays for Engine 42, Rescue 2, and District 9; 14 bunk rooms to house two companies; and the latest in health and safety features to minimize particulate contaminants from traveling to the living quarters of the building.
Bob Dowling, Boston Fire’s district chief, says the former Roxbury station was a one-story building of about 6,400 square feet that had been built in 1951. “We ran out of space at the Roxbury station,” Dowling points out, “especially space for our technical rescue equipment. We also needed to modernize the firehouse and provide more office space for the staff.”
Bruce Dillon, director of business development for Dore & Whittier Architects Inc., says his firm answered a Request for Proposals (RFP) from the Boston Public Facilities Department on behalf of the Boston Fire Department concerning the Roxbury station. “We prepared a proposal for them, then got interviewed about our proposal and how it fit their needs, and got the job to design and build the station,” Dillon says. “The city had considered replacing two fire stations for a long time but decided to first replace the Roxbury station because it’s in a very busy section of the city.”
Alan Brown, project architect for Dore & Whittier, notes, “The existing station was on a very tight urban site of 7â„10 of an acre, which was challenging. We first had to demolish the old station and remove some hazardous materials, like asbestos, from the site. Then there were some major soil issues because of past urban fill, so we had to put in steel piers to support the structure that was going to be 2½ stories.”
Brown adds that Dore & Whittier also constructed a temporary structure with 12 beds to house the station’s firefighters and apparatus about a quarter mile away during construction of the new station. “We had to keep that temporary structure in use for a year and a half because of the delay caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” he says.
1 Dore & Whittier Architects Inc. designed and built the 23,000-square-foot Roxbury fire station for the Boston (MA) Fire Department. (Photo 1 courtesy of Dore & Whittier Architects Inc./Kevin Seniw.)
2 Roxbury station’s three double-deep, back-in apparatus bays house Engine 42, Rescue 2, Rescue 42, and District 9. (Photo 2-7 courtesy of Dore & Whittier Architects Inc./Robert Umenhofer.)
3 The station has a turnout gear storage room that has its own air handling system to expel any off-gassing from the gear to the outside. station is adjacent to the kitchen and the day room.
4 The dining table in the new station is adjacent to the kitchen and the day room.
The new Engine 42 District 9 station has three 78-foot-long, double-deep, back-in apparatus bays, Brown says. “Because of the size of the property, we were not able to give them drive-through apparatus bays,” he notes. “Across one wall we have a full sequence of decon spaces, located between the negative air flow apparatus bays and the rest of the building. There’s an emergency shower for gross decon, large double-bowl laundry sinks and counters, two turnout gear washer/extractors and two turnout gear dryers, and the turnout gear storage room.” A Plymovent exhaust capture system is connected to each apparatus exhaust pipe, Brown adds.
Dowling says a priority for the new firehouse is the health and safety of firefighters living and working out of the facility. As part of the design and construction, the building minimizes particulate contaminants from traveling to the living quarters with the structure segmented into three zones—hot, warm, and cold—to keep carcinogens from circulating throughout the house, he notes.
A multipurpose training facility was built into the back of the apparatus bays, including a confined space prop, windows that are door-like to practice rescues and ladder use, and a rope training deck and anchors on the roof. The rest of the first floor contains a watch room, a bathroom, and a 25-seat training room, all protected by positive pressure air flow.
The second floor has a kitchen/dining/day room area, a fitness room, showers and toilet rooms, and two bunk rooms for Rescue 42 and Rescue 2. Dowling points out that the dorm rooms have three-quarter walls seven feet high that allow for greater lighting transmission and air flow. Each dorm room, he notes, has seven stalls, each covered by a sliding barn-style door that can be locked.
5 The kitchen in the new station.
6 The stairwell and a fire pole give access to the apparatus bays from the upper floors.
7 A painting of the 1951 station that the new Engine 42 District 9 station in Roxbury replaced.
Brown notes that the building is designed to be energy efficient to LEED Silver requirements and has a white roof that is solar ready, high-efficiency mechanical systems, and LED lighting throughout the station.
Dowling says the Roxbury station houses the crews for Engine 42, a 2019 E-ONE pumper; Rescue 2, an E-ONE heavy rescue; Rescue 42, a technical rescue support unit with trench, rope, and confined space equipment and four-hour masks; and the District 9 chief.
Engine 42 District 9 station is a very busy firehouse, Dowling says. “Engine 42 goes on 3,500 runs a year, Rescue 2 is running just under 3,000 calls a year, and District 9 does 12,000 runs annually,” Dowling says. The Boston Fire Department has 34 stations and 1,611 employees, including 1,467 uniformed firefighters, 68 fire alarm operators, and 76 civilian members.
The city of Boston also commissioned an artist to create a long-term public artwork to complement the construction of the Roxbury station. Funded by the city’s Percent for Art Program, which commissions one percent of the city’s capital borrowing for public art, the artwork at Engine 42 District 9 station will be a site-specific, focal design, the city says, that aims to enrich the connection between the Boston Fire Department and the surrounding communities of Roxbury and Egleston.
ALAN M. PETRILLO is a Tucson, Arizona-based journalist, the author of three novels and five nonfiction books, and a member of the Fire Apparatus & Emergency Equipment Editorial Advisory Board. He served 22 years with the Verdoy (NY) Fire Department, including in the position of chief.