Homer Volunteer Fire Department has started a remodeling project to improve their Pioneer Avenue building.
(Photo by Daysha Eaton, KBBI – Homer)
Fire Chief Bob Painter said the project has been underway for about two weeks. He said the remodel is the result of two and half years of planning.
The $1,000,000 project was funded by the City of Homer after the department was removed from the plans for a new public safety building.
“The price tag just got too high. So they came to me, the public safety building committee and the city came and said, ‘what do we need to do to the existing fire station to make it usable for the next 15 years plus,” Painter said.
The answer was, a lot. Original flooring will be replaced; a diesel exhaust removal system installed, and concrete floors in the fire truck bays re-done, among other things.
Homer Fire Department is a combination department. They have about 30 volunteers, five full-time staff and two seasonal employees. Painter said the department’s call volume has increased over the past decade and he estimates they will likely respond to around 700 calls this year.
(Photo by Daysha Eaton, KBBI – Homer)
One additional improvement that Painter is pleased about is that new bunk rooms that will be added upstairs to house volunteers.
“We are going to add 2,000 square feet of additional living space. And that is going to incorporate, right now the plan is calling for five bunk rooms. These are going to be individual bunk rooms that volunteers can live in around the clock. And we are hoping to partner maybe with the college or with students that have firefighter one maybe EMT and part of the room and board will be responding to calls when they are not otherwise engaged in study or work,” Painter said.
Painter said the building was last improved during a 1995 seismic retrofit.
The department had two other reasons to celebrate this week. First, the City of Homer received a Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response, or SAFER, grant through Homeland Security for an assistant fire chief at the Department. Painter said the grant is needed.
“When I’m on vacation or I’m injured or on sick leave or just gone or unavailable for training there is really nobody who can step into the role of Fire Chief without having an Assistant Chief,” said Painter.
The grant first has to be officially accepted by the Homer City Council, which will take two meetings.
(Photo by Daysha Eaton, KBBI – Homer)
Also this week – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development office on Monday delivered a new ambulance to Chief Painter in Anchorage. They own two older ambulances, but the new ones meet federal standards.
“The patient on the rolled stretcher, what we call a gurney, the new hardware that holds that gurney to the floor of the ambulance has to be crash-tested to new federal standards. And that insures that if we are involved in some type of a crash that the patient will be safely on that stretcher even if the ambulance were to do a complete roll,” said Painter.
One of the old ambulances will be relocated to the Skyline Station which is set to open this fall along with an engine and hazmat trailer.
The total cost of the ambulance was $175,000. USDA-RD Alaska approved the $25,000 funding in August 2015. The State of Alaska supplied $70,000 and the City of Homer picked up the remaining approximately $80,000.
Daysha Eaton is a contributor with the Alaska Public Radio Network.
Daysha Eaton holds a B.A. from Evergreen State College, and a M.A. from the University of Southern California. Daysha got her start in radio at Seattle public radio stations, KPLU and KUOW. Before coming to KBBI, she was the News Director at KYUK in Bethel. She has also worked as the Southcentral Reporter for KSKA in Anchorage.
Daysha's work has appeared on NPR's "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered", PRI's "The World" and "National Native News". She's happy to take assignments, and to get news tips, which are best sent via email.
Daysha became a journalist because she believes in the power of storytelling. Stories connect us and they help us make sense of our world. They shed light on injustice and they comfort us in troubled times. She got into public broadcasting because it seems to fulfill the intention of the 4th Estate and to most effectively apply the freedom of the press granted to us through the Constitution. She feels that public radio has a special way of moving people emotionally through sound, taking them to remote places, introducing them to people they would not otherwise meet and compelling them to think about issues they might ordinarily overlook.
