NFPA Journal - Winter 2024 - 62

a sizable portion of the nation's operational fire stations
was constructed before the first paid female
firefighter was even employed. It also means these
buildings were built without consideration for the
need for private or separate facilities. Fire stations
in smaller communities are especially illuminating
on this point. While female representation in
the fire service appears to be more common in
departments serving communities of fewer than
9,999 people, 63 percent of the fire stations in those
communities are more than 40 years old and likely
do not have private or separate facilities for men
and women.
Consequently, many fire departments are recognizing
a need to retrofit fire stations with either
private gender-neutral facilities or separate facilities
for men and women. The current trend in fire
station design is to have gender-neutral spaces to
provide all firefighters with privacy while on the
job. Renovating fire stations to include either gender-neutral
or gender-inclusive facilities is often
done as part of other large-scale renovation projects.
We estimate that renovating an existing fire station
to include gender-neutral facilities costs between
$151,000 and $251,000. Applying the same population
factors used throughout this study, we estimate
that the cost of adding gender-neutral facilities to
all the fire stations without them is between $3.9
and $6.5 billion.
GOING FORWARD:
STEPS FOR IMPROVEMENT
The progress in renovating fire stations across the
U.S. has been limited since our previous report on
fire station renovation needs, which was published
in 2019. As those renovations are deferred or otherwise
delayed, the costs associated with those
improvements are rapidly increasing.
For fire stations that are more than 40 years old,
the progress is being outpaced by the number of
fire stations reaching that age. Combined with an
increase in construction costs, the estimated total
cost of replacing all the fire stations in the U.S. that
are more than 40 years old has doubled since 2019.
Progress on installing emission control systems
and backup power generators has been greater in
larger communities compared to smaller ones. However,
despite the overall progress, increases in the
costs of construction and hardware mean that the
estimated cost of installing emission control systems
in all the fire stations without them has increased
more than 30 percent since 2019. The estimated cost
of installing backup power generators in all the fire
stations that don't have them has increased more
than 20 percent since 2019.
The numbers presented here are daunting. But
we cannot let that prevent us from acting now, as
waiting only prolongs the risks associated with
these problems and increases the cost of fixing
them. We are proposing three important steps at the
62 | NFPA JOURNAL * WINTER 2024
Older fire stations typically
do not have the modern
facilities that are most
beneficial for buildings as
well as for firefighters, such
as decontamination areas
with laundry facilities and
gear storage areas that are
separate from living areas.
department, community, and federal levels that can
help the fire service effectively address these issues.
Fire departments should evaluate their fire
stations to document their age and condition.
Each fire station should be evaluated for the presence
of facilities for cleaning, disinfection, and
storage in accordance with NFPA 1581, Standard
on Fire Department Infection Control Program;
for the presence and condition of exhaust capture
systems; for the presence of designated zones indicating
the likelihood of contamination exposure;
for the presence and capability of backup power
systems; and to ensure facilities are prepared for
female firefighters.
Communities should determine the relevance
of their fire stations.
Communities should evaluate the role of fire stations
as critical infrastructure and whether they
are optimal for the fire department to respond to
existing and emerging threats of relevance in the
community. The impact of climate events such as
hurricanes, floods, wildfires, and tornadoes should
be considered, as should pandemics, civil unrest,
and terror attacks.
The federal government should
increase the funding for the Assistance to
Firefighters Grants with funds earmarked for
renovation of fire stations.
The U.S. Fire Administration should consider
collecting fire station evaluations from all fire
departments, potentially through a dedicated
module in the National Emergency Response Information
System. This will make it possible to get
a better overview of the scale of the problem and
thereby help prioritize the distribution of grants.
Firefighters respond to a wide variety of emergencies,
and we call upon them to save us when we
are in danger. It is critically important to ensure
that they operate out of fire stations that are safe
and that provide a working environment that helps
them respond quickly and effectively when we need
them the most.
BIRGITTE MESSERSCHMIDT is director of Research at NFPA.
NFPA Journal - Winter 2024

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