NFPA Journal - Winter 2024 - 58

Engine 50
is a small, red-brick fire station located in Boston's
Charlestown neighborhood, just down the hill from
the Bunker Hill Monument. A fire station has occupied
the site since 1853, making it the oldest such
site in the country, and Engine 50 has existed since
1918. The station's ties to the neighborhood are
numerous and deep, and have earned it the unofficial
title of " the people's firehouse. "
A decade ago, though, the people's firehouse was
looking a little worse for wear. The walls and ceiling
of the first floor were coated with soot and the
residue of diesel exhaust; in places, the grime was
thick enough to mask the paint underneath. More
exhaust residue coated the appliances in the firstfloor
kitchen. Bunker gear was glazed with decades
of toxic residue from fires and other events that
crews had responded to.
In 2017, work began on an extensive renovation
and modernization of Engine 50, part of an effort
by the Boston Fire Department to update some of
its oldest and most threadbare stations. While its
exterior and footprint remained mostly unchanged,
blending seamlessly with the neighborhood's historic
rowhouses, the station's interior was redesigned
with an emphasis on firefighter health and safety.
The first floor housed apparatus as well as industrial
washers used to clean firefighters' turnout gear,
and was equipped with its own ventilation system
to help isolate the worst of the toxins entering the
station. The kitchen was moved to the third floor
to further protect firefighters. Two years and nearly
$4 million later, Engine 50 reopened and began its
latest chapter as a state-of-the-art example of the
modern fire station.
While the Engine 50 renovation is encouraging,
it is the exception rather than the rule; the number
of stations renovated each year in the United States
is vastly outnumbered by those in need of updating
or replacement. As thousands of fire stations
around the country await improvement, many more
thousands of firefighters face the consequences of
working in outdated facilities that can pose an array
of health and safety risks.
A new NFPA Research report, " Renovation Needs
of U.S. Fire Stations, " details a number of deficiencies
in the nation's fire stations. Those needs include
updates to stations that are over 40 years old, stations
that are not equipped with exhaust emission
control systems, stations not equipped with backup
power generators, and stations that do not have separate
facilities for female firefighters.
The renovation needs report found that 44 percent
of fire stations in the U.S. are over 40 years
old. Additionally, 56 percent of U.S. fire stations
58 | NFPA JOURNAL * WINTER 2024
NFPA.ORG/
RENOVATION
Read the complete
NFPA report on the
renovation needs of
U.S. fire stations.
operate without exhaust emission control systems,
52 percent do not have private or separate facilities
for men and women, and 31 percent operate
without backup power. Communities with fewer
than 10,000 residents are much more likely than
larger communities to be served by fire stations
with these deficiencies. The cost of correcting these
deficiencies is estimated at more than $140 billion.
The data on fire stations used in the report originates
from the " Fifth Needs Assessment of the
U.S. Fire Service, " a survey conducted in 2020. The
goal of the survey was to compare the facilities fire
departments have with what the existing standards,
government regulations, and other guidance documents
state they need to be safe and effective. The
estimates of the number of fire stations in each
deficiency category are statistical projections of all
fire departments with both emergency response and
record-keeping responsibilities in the United States
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NFPA Journal - Winter 2024

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