The Owensboro Fire Department recently released more details and designs for the rebuilding of Station 3 on Cravens Avenue. Officials said the new two-level building will be more spacious, further protect firefighters from cancer-causing substances, and include the City’s first fire pole.
The project is part of Operation: Fire House, which also included the rebuild of OFD Stations 1 and 4.
“I can’t say that there’s a firefighter who is not happy because I’ve heard nothing but great reviews from the replacement of this station in particular,” said Assistant City Manager Lelan Hancock. “It’s probably one of our older stations that we have.”
The station is located at 2633 Cravens Avenue. By having two levels, it will be the first station in Owensboro with a fire pole.
The living quarters will be on the second floor, and the daytime station area on the first. They have also added co-ed functionality in the living quarters, seperating the bunks to individual rooms instead of combined sleeping.
Station 3 will also include an extra bay for the different apparatus that the team uses — such as ladder trucks, rescue trucks, and pumper trucks. All three bays will have doors on each side to allow trucks to drive through rather than having to back in.
The new station will also include a decontamination area to help lower the exposure to cancer-causing substances that often linger after a job has been completed. In this area, firefighters can take their gear off, place it into bunker washing, have stations to dry the gear, and cleanse themselves before entering the living quarters.
In making the design, Hancock said that they researched and traveled to different regional stations to learn about amenities offered elsewhere.
“We traveled to Nashville, Bowling Green, and Lexington, various different places to see all of the new stations, different amenities and things that have been included in each one of those stations,” he said. “We’ve tried to maximize that and include that in this station for the perfect design for this community.”
