CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Once fully constructed, Charlotte's newly-reconstruction Firehouse #30 will be the first all-electric firehouse in the Southeast, according to the city of Charlotte.
Ground for the new fire station was broken Monday in a ceremony at the site, which is located adjacent to the Charlotte Fire Department's training center on Shopton Road.
The $16 million project will build a new 14,000-square-foot, three-bay, two-story, all-electric firehouse.
The city of Charlotte calls it the Southeast's first all-electric firehouse and will feature the first all-electric North American style fire engine.
“We do a lot of things already to help with sustainability," Charlotte Fire Chief Reginald Johnson said. "We have idle reduction procedures already on our current fire trucks, and so we’re going to continue to do that path.”
Fire departments contribute to carbon emissions through the exhaust from fire trucks, water usage and energy consumption inside fire houses.
Heather Bolick, the sustainable infrastructure strategy manager for the city of Charlotte, said renewable energy and energy-efficient resources are the only way the city can reach zero-carbon with its buildings and fleet.
“This building will also be a green building, a LEED building, which means we are optimizing the way we are using energy by using LED lighting and super-efficient geo-thermal heat pump heating and air conditioning systems," Bolick said. "We are using smart surfaces like cool roofs and concrete that will be more durable over time and reflect the sun’s heat away from the firehouse.”
Some benefits of a sustainable fire department include:
Economic Gains: Water conservation and waste reduction techniques could reduce costs.
Air Quality Benefits: Minimize the impact chemicals and firefighting have on breathing clean air.
Safety of first responders: Decrease firefighters’ exposure to toxic substances.
Johnson said the goal is to build a foundation and save lives.
“We will be able to house more firefighters, add more fire trucks, so we can achieve our goal of getting to every call within six minutes,” Johnson said.
Construction is estimated to take between one and two years to build the 14,000-square-foot, two-story, three-bay firehouse house that will serve this community.
A groundbreaking ceremony was held Monday at the three-acre site, which is located at 3019 Beam Road. The project relocates firefighters and equipment from the current Firehouse #30, which is located closer to Charlotte Douglas International Airport on Belle-Oaks Drive.
The original firehouse was built in 1955 as a temporary facility. Nearly seven decades later, construction has begun on a permanent facility.
Contact KJ Jacobs at kjacobs3@wcnc.com and follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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