Saratoga News

Photograph by Edmund Lee

While plans continued for a new firehouse, members of the Saratoga Fire Department were busy last week running a course on extricating victims from auto accidents. Participants besides Saratoga firefighters were the Santa Clara County Fire Department and the California Division of Forestry for Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties. The course included classroom instruction and field exercises at the Saratoga High School parking lot. Here, firefighters learn to stabilize two accident "victims." Lorynn Monroe is in the driver's seat, and P.J. Doherty is in the passenger seat; both are with the SFD. Tom Oldread of the Santa Clara County Fire Department is in the back seat.

Plans for new fire station take shape

By Sarah Lombardo

If the 5.4 temblor on Aug. 12 wasn't a reminder to residents that they need to be prepared, it was a reminder to Saratoga Fire District officials that they need a new firehouse--and with initial drawings for a new facility completed this week, the timing was right.

District officials met Thursday, Aug. 13, with Chris Ford, the senior vice president and director of the architectural division of RRM Design Group, to look over proposed first-draft plans for a new firehouse.

The plans feature a second story, a main lobby for visitors, a night desk for after-hours walk-in emergencies, a community room possibly for use by local groups as well as by fire officials and a display area that will feature the district's antique Model A Ford firetruck--which is currently stored at Madronia Cemetery. The plans also call for a new bell tower and for the department's bays to be moved farther back from the street along Saratoga Avenue, which would allow for the construction of a sidewalk. As the firehouse is situated now, pedestrians must walk in front of the truck bays along the street or--as some fire officials humorously pointed out--stroll inside and around the trucks to the other side of the bays.

RRM Design, based in San Luis Obispo, has been involved in other Bay Area fire station or headquarters remodel projects, including those in Dublin and Milpitas. The company has also designed a number of stations outside the area, including one in Santa Cruz. Ford said in Saratoga's plans, he tried to incorporate some of the ideas he learned from talking with fire officials in other areas about the needs of the firefighters, as well as taking into account how Saratoga's department operates--and it's limited land space.

"If there is one public entity that is sorely neglected from a facilities standpoint," Ford said. "It is the fire department."

District officials--including fire commissioners Jay Geddes, Henry Clark and Bob Egan--seemed pleased with the initial plans.

Chief Kraule said the plans allow for the possibility of growth. "The plan is designed such that if we ever buy [additional property], we can expand by simply adding an addition bay along the front of Saratoga Avenue," he said.

Some changes were proposed, and new drawings, along with cost estimates for each step of the process from drawing board to building site, will be prepared for a commissioner's meeting at the end of the month.

Fire district officials told the council in February that they expected they would have to go to Saratoga voters with a bond next year in order to pay for a new fire house. The current station, according to a report prepared in July 1994 by structural engineer Ed Meserve, has weak walls, an improperly attached roof and a parapet that could fall in an earthquake. The firehouse needs so many seismic upgrades that it could hinder fire service in the event of a serious earthquake.

The firehouse is also short on space for both personnel and training.

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