Fire station celebrates 10 years

Ten years to the day after the Carson City Fire Department's $1.9 million Station 1 opened on Stewart Street, the crew is still elated about the "new" building.

"We couldn't wait to move in here," said Capt. Eric Bero on Sunday.

He worked at the old station on West Musser Street before the new one opened on Feb. 15, 1994. "We like this station a lot."

The old station was built for the volunteers of Warren Engine Company in 1950. Men, women, firefighters and administration all shared the same bathroom. There were only two showers. The oil-fueled heating system left soot on the walls - and in the firefighters' lungs.

"Everything about the old station was undersized for where the department was at," Bero said.

The 1994 facility at 777 South Stewart St. allows staff to better serve the community, he said. It has room in the front and back to stretch out 1,000 feet of hose or take ladders off the ladder trucks.

"At the old station, we couldn't do that," Bero said. "We'd have to go use the high school parking lot."

The new station - home to seven firefighters at a time - has many other nice features.

There's a library room where firefighters study books by the International Fire Service Training Association. A shelf covering one wall holds titles such as "Pumping Apparatus," "Aircraft" and "Hazardous Materials."

"These cover the whole fire service, basically from being the chief all the way down to the new guy," said firefighter/paramedic Jeff Davies. "We spend a lot of time in here studying."

Down the hall, firefighters maintain their fitness in a gym with weights, a bench press and a stair machine.

There are nine individual sleeping rooms.

"That way, you're not hearing someone snoring while you're trying to sleep, and if you're sick, you're not passing the bug," Davies said.

At Carson's Station 2 near the airport, crews are awakened by vehicles coming and going, said firefighter/paramedic Jim White.

"You hardly get any sleep at Station 2."

The day room features an entertainment center.

"And because there's seven of us here, we have an industrial-size kitchen," Davies said. The crew shops for groceries and splits the cost. Staff eat dinner at a 12-foot oak table. There are two dishwashers, two stoves and three refrigerators - one for each shift, A, B and C.

On the apparatus floor, there's room for six hefty vehicles, including a truck with an extending 100-foot ladder. Firefighter/paramedic Clint Hayes was sharpening the blade of a Pulaski on Sunday to prepare for wildland fire season. An industrial washer nearby is used to clean soot-covered turnouts.

Administration is separated from the firefighters' quarters by the apparatus floor. There's the office of fire prevention, the offices of Fire Chief Lou Buckley Jr. and his battalion chiefs and a classroom. The classroom, which is available to the public, features 24 chairs at long tables, dry-erase boards and a PowerPoint set-up.

Next to that is the 1,600-square-foot Warren Engine Company museum. It's full of old-fashioned "apparatus" such as leather helmets and horse-drawn, firefighting carts.

In the entry way under a sky light is a hand-pushed hose cart from Glenbrook, circa 1890.

Carson City's Station 1, funded by a bond issue passed in 1989, was designed to expand with a growing community. There's room for 18 full-time personnel, Bero said.

"It probably as a life span of another 20 years," Davies said. "We try to keep it nice because this is our home - we live here."

Contact Karl Horeis at khoreis@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1219.