Millions of dollars approved for upgrades to Indianapolis fire stations

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The typical age of an Indianapolis Hearth Division Station is 36-years-old.

A few of them like station 20 on Emerson and sixteenth avenue are 70-years-old. Earlier this month, the Metropolis-County Council accepted a $7 million bond to utterly rebuild that station.

A further $1 million was put aside for enhancements to a number of completely different fireplace stations.

“You possibly can see the place the bricks are beginning to flake and it’s doing this in a number of locations across the constructing,” Division Chief of Logistics Kevan Crawley stated whereas strolling round station 11 on Washington Road.

The 50-year-old construction additionally has an uneven flooring and pavement.

“These guys come out right here in the midst of the evening to go on calls and this poses a visit hazard,” Crawley stated.

There are additionally unseen hazards, like fireplace combating tools that emits cancerous fumes. IFD desires to construct a separate storage space to retailer the tools.

“Our firefighters work a 24-hour shift. They’re off for twenty-four hours so we primarily spend a third of our lives in these buildings,” Crawley stated..

House inside the common firehouse has shrunk over time because the station was retrofitted to accommodate a altering workforce.

“This picket construction initially wasn’t within the fireplace station. That has ladies’s quarters in it. It has bodily health areas in it so our firefighters can keep match and do their job longer,” Crawley stated.

He provides IFD has made probably the most of its fireplace stations, however very like an previous dwelling, even firehouses want repairs.

“We discuss concerning the funding we make not simply in our buildings and our fireplace equipment, however our funding we make in our firefigthers. We extend their careers, we make them more healthy,” he stated.

A further $7.5 million was appropriated to construct a brand new firehouse changing the present one in Broad Ripple, which is sort of 100-years-old.