Mobile Station Solves Needs Of Expansion
As one of the nation’s fastest growing areas, Southern California has become a leader in developing solutions to fire service expansion problems.
Orange County provides fire protection to areas outside some developing cities with single engine company stations of mobile/modular metal construction.
Station 32 in Yorba Linda and Station 35 in Placentia are two such modular units provided by Modulaire Leasing Company. Each station has two 12 X 60-foot halves which were trucked to the site and joined together.
Low cost
These stations cost only $22,578 each and had a one-year warranty. Installing the mobile/modular units required only four days and three workers. That can he compared to up to a year and more than $225,000 for conventional structures.
Orange County financed the two fire stations with a three-year bank loan. Most importantly, when fire protection requirements change, the stations can be moved to other sites.
Each 1440-square-foot station has a kitchen, a dormitory for eight persons, toilet and shower facilities, a locker room, storage room, day room and an eat ing area.
Both units have electric heating and air conditioning. The stations are fully insulated to meet California’s energy conservation requirements.
Less maintenance
The modular units were designed to require less maintenance than conventional fire stations, and fire fighters particularly like that feature, according to Orange County Assistant Chief Bill Teie.
He also mentioned that some county mobile/modular office units are of the same design as the fire stations, except they have no kitchen. As needs change, they can be converted to fire stations by adding a kitchen.
Orange County provides fire protection for nine of the 26 incorporated cities in the county. Of the county’s 37 fire stations, three are mobile/modular units.
