New Station 5 ready for duty

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Bangor’s old Station 5 on State Street is an architectural gem that has served the city well as a unique neighborhood landmark for almost 100 years.

Bangor’s new Station 5, located on the Hogan Road, is a jewel in its own right, a solid, modern structure uniquely designed to optimize the Bangor Fire Department’s ability to respond to emergencies on the east side of the city.

Fire Chief John Foley thinks the new building will last at least as long as its predecessor has.

“I expect it to be there 100 years from now,” said Foley during a recent interview. “The building can certainly last 100 years. I’m sure it will develop its own history and flavor the way the old State Street station did.

“The new station will better facilitate the department to meet the needs of the people who live in and visit our city,” he said. “Emergency services — that’s the name of the game, how quickly can we get there.”

City firefighters are expected to move into the new structure Thursday, Foley said. An open house for the public will be announced shortly after Labor Day.

A distinctive, one-floor design, the new building will house a crew of four firefighters and one officer, and three rescue vehicles, including one engine, one aerial and one rescue truck. The fire station has been designed so firefighters can get to their vehicles and then out onto the road quickly and safely.

The station will serve the residential area of the city covered in the past by old Station 5, from State Street to Broadway. It also will cover the burgeoning Hogan Road — a high-accident area — including Interstate 95 southbound from Hogan Road to the Hampden town line.

About five years ago, the city decided that a new fire station was needed, and land near the Bangor Mental Health Institute was purchased from the state, said Foley. The State Street station, “in one sense, outlived its usefulness, the size of the building, the new technology,” he said. The old building also needed extensive repairs, said the chief.

The new site was chosen by former Bangor Fire Chief Robert Burke to enhance the city’s insurance rating by moving the station to an area of future development and expansion, said Foley. He pointed out that each hour during the summer, about 1,700 cars pass by on I-95, and more than 100,000 people move in and out of the city every day.

The plans for the new station were prepared by the Ames Corp. in conjunction with the Fire Department, but the project was shelved in 1991 because of a lack of money, said Foley. After voters approved the state jobs bonds in 1992, the city was ready to go with the plans.

“It took us a matter of days to clean (the plans) up and get them ready,” said Foley, adding that with the 50-50 split under the jobs bond, the city will pay $350,000 for the total project.

Construction started last fall under the watchful eye of a construction management team that included Foley, Assistant Fire Chief Scott Bostock, Capt. Larry Sherman, and Capt. Ritchie Palmer, who will supervise the crew at the new station.

Foley praised his team members, saying, “They spent countless hours of their own time to see through the step-by-step process of the construction.”

Meeting weekly, the team acted as general contractor, while a clerk of the works coordinated the subcontractors, said Foley. The process was a cost-saving one for the city, and “the Fire Department, which is ultimately responsible for the building, saw it through all the stages,” said the fire chief. ” … We know what we have in that building.”

Foley recently led a tour through the new station, showing off a bright, airy truck bay, private bunk rooms for the crew, a multipurpose day room, a modern kitchen, and shower facilities that allow the crew to clean up after a fire without tracking black carbon through the station.

The building also has a special system, the first of its kind in the area, to remove vehicle exhaust, said the chief. Hoses attached to the exhaust pipes of the trucks vent the exhaust out of the building and automatically release when the trucks pull out of the station.

“We’ve kept the contamination from the air we breathe,” said Foley.

In addition, the building also is the first fire station in the city, the second one in the state, to have a sprinkler system.

“A lot of people would say why do you need a sprinkler system,” said Foley. “The point is we lead by example. There’s never been a loss of life in a sprinkled building.”

One of the station’s unique features is a new fitness room, which will be available to the entire department, said Foley. The fitness room was established at the request of Firefighter Ron Howell, who is making the move to the new station.

Encountered during the tour, Howell said he was “very excited” about the fitness room, which originally was going to be office space. He described Foley as “the first chief who is pushing physical training.”

“It’s totally different, something we’ve never had before and wanted,” said Howell, his face lighting up at the thought of the fitness room.

As for the new station, “It’s perfect,” he said, admitting that he “couldn’t ask for a better one.”

The biggest challenge for the firefighters with the move to the new station will be losing the neighborhood environment, said Foley.

“The whole neighborhood concept is gone,” he acknowledged. “They knew the people in the neighborhood. The guys would sit out front in the evenings and the neighbors would walk by.”

The fire chief said, however, that he really didn’t expect the experiences of his firefighters to change very much with the move.

“They’ll face the same kind of risks they face every day,” he said.