Dunmore looking at addition on cramped firehouse

DUNMORE To solve a space crunch at the boroughs firehouse, officials are mulling a two-story addition to the back of the building.

The proposal would expand the firehouse into part of the employee parking lot shared with the Police Department and Borough Building, and the addition would overtake the former Department of Public Works garage, Dunmore officials said during a recent tour for The Sunday Times.

Firefighters see the proposed new design, paired with the nearly $1 million firetruck the borough will get within a year, as a more efficient setup that could slightly improve response times.

Hemmler & Camayd Architects developed some other renovation scenarios, but Councilman Salvatore Verrastro saw the addition as the option the borough could most likely afford with a $345,000 gaming grant awarded to Dunmore in January 2013.

Were waiting for pricing on it, Mr. Verrastro said. Its a big guess right now, but I think were going to be close.

If Dunmore can afford it, the addition would allow the Fire Department to reorganize its existing cramped headquarters shared by five firefighters and two medics during a typical shift, Assistant Chief Robert Dee said.

The Blakely Street building now features two garages, sleeping quarters where five beds are each spaced inches apart, a cramped day room where firefighters knees sometimes knock together when a group sits on two opposing couches, a single bathroom, a kitchen and a small office.

During middle-of-the-night emergencies, two firefighters typically exit the bedroom through a back door outside, race down stairs and a short path which both need to be repeatedly cleared throughout the night during poor winter weather to the garage.

Another pair of firefighters normally leave the bedroom from the indoor side toward the other garage to get supplementary emergency vehicles.

Dunmores new firetruck will be a combined pumper/vehicle rescue/ladder truck, and the plan for the addition calls for sleeping quarters that connect directly to the remodeled garage housing the three-in-one truck potentially cutting response times.

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Dunmore looking at addition on cramped firehouse