Fire Chief Proposes Relocating Downtown Station

Fire Chief Peter Henrikson outlined the reasons it may be time to move the downtown fire station during a meeting of the Fire Commissioners Thursday night.

Henrikson raised the issue now, he said, because of the unexpected availability of the property at the southwest corner of Post Road and Cedar Avenue, which may be for sale by the state.

While many people probably still think fire fighters spend most of their time fighting actual fires. Better building techniques and materials, sprinklers, and tougher fire codes have reduced fire calls, while EMS runs have steadily increased. In 2011 East Greenwich firefighters were called out 2,800 times. About 30 percent of those calls were fire related, while 70 percent were EMS responses.  

The time component is critical to both fighting fires and EMS responses. The faster you get there, the better chance of snuffing out the fire or saving the life. 

With the growth of medical offices on South County Trail and the arrival of New England Tech, and whether the town’s two fire stations are in the right place.

When a study indicated the 100-year-old Main Street fire station was no longer in an optimal location, Henrikson was not surprised. He was, however, surprised to learn the land at Post and Cedar roads may be for sale soon.

Henrikson asked the state Department of Transportation about its plans for the vacant 2.47 acres at the southwest corner of Post and Cedar and was told the state wants to sell it. They also plan to sell 1.16 acres on the other side of the street in front of Christ Church.

Henrikson's proposal is without financial estimates.

He said he is well aware of the weak economy and the town’s recent investments in the school system and a new police station. Nonetheless, he has notified the DOT that the Fire District has interest in the site.

As state-owned property, the Post Road site doesn’t generate property taxes, so there would be no loss of income to the town as there would be if the District bought privately-owned land that would then come off the tax rolls.

Henrikson said he also understands the long historical connection to the Main Street station, as well as the need to protect the town’s valuable business district. Although many of the Main Street buildings are old, most have been upgraded to meet codes and Henrikson feels a review of the numbers shows taking the station off Main Street would not reduce the department’s ability to protect it.

In the analysis of whether or not the town’s two fire stations are in the right locations, the department is using a National Fire Protection Academy standard which sets a goal of getting to an EMS or fire call within four minutes 90 percent of the time. Another recommendation, made by the Insurance Services Office, says a fire truck should be located within 1.5 miles of a community’s most densely populated area.

To help determine how the department currently measures up, Henrikson hired Stefan Coutoulakis, a retired EG fire captain who owns a business specializing in hazardous materials training. Part of that training includes a computer-mapping program to pinpoint building locations and contents (two of his maps are attached at right).

Coutoulakis drew mile-and-a-half circles around both fire stations. The circle around Station Two on Frenchtown Road covers the area for which the station was designed, with a only a small overlap on a piece of North Kingstown.

The circle around the Main Street station, which is in the northeast corner of town, covered a big chunk of Warwick and quite a bit of open water. The circle does take in Potowomut, to which East Greenwich provides protection through a contract with Warwick.

When the center of the circle is moved from the Main Street station to Post Road and Cedar Avenue, it still covers Potowomut but shrinks coverage of Warwick north of Division and expands coverage in East Greenwich to the west, reaching to Route 4.

This isn’t the first time moving the Main Street station has been considered. In 1977 a study recommended relocating to South Pierce and Middle roads, which looked good on paper but was not really practical. And the Post Road and Cedar site was actually considered in 1979.

However the town was much different back then, when many of the mostly all-volunteer department lived on or near Main Street. Some actually kept gear next to their beds at night and if a fire broke out, the fire truck would pick them up in front of their home as it headed for the scene.

Because so many firefighters lived so close to the station, it was decided to give the building a $750,000 upgrade in 1980, adding administrative offices and a garage in the basement. A house behind the station was purchased for a parking lot, pleasing surrounding businesses. (There was a big social component to being a volunteer firefighter and many spent a good part of their free time at the station, filling the parking spots up and down the street.)

The East Greenwich Fire District was incorporated in 1797 by the state’s General Assembly as a volunteer fire company to protect the town, which then totaled about 1,800 people. The population now is 13,092 with 5,386 housing units.

The original 1914 firehouse was built for hand-drawn and horse-drawn apparatus. That equipment didn’t weigh much so accommodations were necessary as trucks came into use. In 1957, a one-story addition on a cement slab was constructed to accommodate a 25,000-pound ladder truck. The current ladder truck weighs 61,000 pounds and the current engine weighs 38,000 pounds.

In 1986 the Fire District spent over $30,000 to retrofit the apparatus bay so a newly-purchased 1972 Baker Aerial scope would fit inside the building. The floor over the basement, which was replaced in 1980, now leaks and some $70,000 is earmarked for repairs.

From its origin as a trough carrying water to a bucket brigade, and continuing through a long history of volunteers, the East Greenwich department has evolved into a full-time career department with 36 firefighters.

Because of a blind spot, engines leave the Main Street station carefully, then have to maneuver down a Main Street that carries up to 16,000 vehicles a day.  

Coming back to the station also has challenges, as the big trucks use the full width of the street to back into the building. Almost weekly cars swerve across the station’s apparatus ramp, in a hurry to avoid a stop while a truck is guided into place, Henrikson said.

Taking a look at the growth and change in just the last 10 years has convinced Henrikson the department needs to move from Main Street. He has a lot more numbers to put together for the Fire Commissioners to help decide just how and if that can be done.

Henrikson will give the commissioners a detailed report of the time-response study, building condition, and relocation costs in February. It was planned to present the information at the regular meeting, but due to the amount of information and anticipated public interest, a separate date will be set at which that will be the only topic on the agenda.