Four Mile Fire Department -- New Station

	Boulder Community Network \| Emergency Center

The New Four Mile Fire Protection District Station

On December 6, 2012 the Four Mile Fire Protection District selected an architectural firm to begin the design of a new fire station near the intersection of Poorman Road and Four Mile Canyon road (1750 Four Mile Canyon.)

The firm, Idiam Inc., was selected after a competitive conceptual design presentation by three firms. The presentation was held in the Salina fire station on December 1 and was open to public. The public had an opportunity to ask questions and provide comments on the conceptual designs.
The process of review, comment, and redesign will probably be repeated two or three times until we have an acceptable basis for a detailed design. It is in the early stages but click below to see an intial design layout for the new fire station.

PDF

Station Design - Draft

We've broken ground at the site for the new fire station! Come along and see the progress at the site. All welcome!
Fund Raising and Donations Welcome

Help is needed - thank you, from Four Mile Fire Department.

Four Mile Fire Department is a "Special District" under the State of Colorado and as such all donations are tax deductible.
For more information please contact Chief Bret Gibson at (303) 449 3333.

Background

Since the 1960’s there has been a fire station at the intersection of Logan Mill Road and Four Mile Canyon. The District also has a station near Wallstreet in Four Mile Canyon, a newly rebuilt station in Salina, and a station at the Boulder Mountain Lodge. The Wallstreet station houses two engines, has limited storage space, and no meeting facility. The Salina station houses two engines, has some storage space, and a small meeting room. The Logan Mill station houses two engines (in a stacked configuration with one engine behind another), has essentially no storage space and no meeting facility. The Lodge station houses a single engine and is little more than a garage for the engine.

The Logan Mill “station” is little more than a garage made from a 70-year-old Quonset Hut that is located on an easement from a neighboring land owner. There are a number of problems with the station at Logan Mill. The building is on an easement that will expire and does not actually allow access to Four Mile Canyon. The location is subject to flooding; no new building would be allowed even if the easement issues could be resolved. Finally, the majority of structures in the Four Mile Fire Protection District are better served by a real station located at the Poorman Road site.

In addition, the station at the Boulder Mountain Lodge is subject to a lease that will expire in 2013 and may require the District to remove the engine currently housed there. The engine at the Lodge station responds to most of the calls in Boulder Canyon and the western edge of the City of Boulder (which is in our response district.) Neither the Logan Mill or Lodge stations have room for truck maintenance, training, or equipment storage. The Four Mile Fire Protection District has been working on a replacement for the Logan Mill and the Lodge stations for some time. Several issues have had to be addressed:

Location and land title
Financing
Station design

The parcel of land at the intersection of Poorman and Four Mile Canyon became available through the donation of a local landowner. For a variety of reasons, securing clear title to the land, which is actually owned by a trust, has been an involved process that is now drawing to a close. The District will have clear title to the land and not be subject to limited easements.

Financing will be a combination of funds bequeathed to the District by a previous firefighter, grant funding, and, possibly, lease-back of one or more engines currently owned by the District.

As a result of the design competition completed in December the District now has a conceptual design that demonstrated the feasibility of the Poorman Station.

Benefits of a Poorman Station

The new station at Poorman Road is not an “additional” station. It is being built to replace the totally inadequate Logan Mill station that has serious flooding and easement issues which preclude simply building a new station at the Logan Mill site. The new station would also replace the Lodge station that may not be available in a few years.
The Poorman Road location actually improves response times for a majority of residents in the District by locating a station nearer to the majority of structures in the District without seriously affecting response times to Logan Mill residents. One if the District’s goals is ensure that all structures in the District are within 5 miles from a fire station. The Poorman station achieves this for more than half the structures in the District.
The Poorman station will be at the following distances from major communities in the District’s service area:

3.95 miles to 3rd and Arapahoe Avenue which is the eastern edge of the district and includes apartments, offices, and motels.
4.21 miles to 1154 Escape Route which is the upper limit of the 65 houses in the Logan Mill area.
2.57 miles to the top of Arroyo Chico.
1.95 miles to the intersection of Logan Mill and Four Mile Canyon.

There are a total of 101 structures on Four Mile and Boulder Canyons below the Poorman Road intersections. These structures will have an improved response time with the new station. The 80 structures above the Poorman location (including the 65 Logan Mill structures) will not have more than a 5 minute increase in response time (2 miles at 25 miles per hour.) In fact, in adverse conditions of snow and ice, response times to Logan Mill may be better from the Poorman station. Ice at the current Logan Mill station can make it very difficult for an engine, even with chains, to make it up the steep driveway from the station to Four Mile or Logan Mill. The design of the new Poorman station will permit a flat or downhill access to Four Mile Canyon.

The Poorman station will have three parallel engine bays, facilities for storage and engine maintenance, and a training room for classroom training to accommodate up to 40 firefighters.