Forum de Emergencias y Desastres, Fundado por José Musse

A todos los Bomberos.
Solicito información sobre:


El criterio que debe tomarse para instalar cuarteles , estaciones de bomberos o destacamento en una ciudad , número de estaciones , por cantidad de habitantes , etc, etc. , etc.


He solicitado esta información en mi país, Argentina y nadie me ha sabido responder.



Desde ya les agradece y los saluda.

Hola
Revisa este articulo y los NFPA standards y codigos mencionados en el mismo.
Espero que sean de ayuda,

José Musse

www.wbdg.org/design/firestation.php

OVERVIEW
A fire station supports the needs of the fire department and the community in which it is located. It must accommodate extremely diverse functions, including housing, recreation, administration, training, community education, equipment and vehicle storage, equipment and vehicle maintenance, and hazardous materials storage. While it is usually only occupied by trained personnel, the facility may also need to accommodate the general public for community education or outreach programs.

Fire stations will vary somewhat in design depending on specific mission, i.e., the types of emergencies that will be responded to or the types of fires that will be fought. Usually, the facility differences relate to the size of the firefighting apparatus and facility location. The location of the facility is largely driven by the need to minimize response time. For example, aircraft rescue firefighting (ARFF) stations provide fire protection to flight lines and aircraft and are located adjacent to the runways on airport property. Similarly, stations with hazardous waste response teams are located near likely spill sites, etc.

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BUILDING ATTRIBUTES
A. Space Types and Building Organization
Major fire station functional areas include the following:

Apparatus bay(s): This is where the fire fighting and emergency response vehicles are stored.
Apparatus bay support and vehicle maintenance: These industrial spaces are where the vehicles and other fire fighting equipment are cleaned, maintained, and stored.
Administrative and training areas: These include offices, dispatch facilities, and training and conference rooms.
Residential areas: These include the dorm rooms, day room/kitchen, and residential support areas such as bathrooms and fitness spaces.
The two primary drivers for facility layout and functional space adjacencies in a fire station are the following:

Ensure that internal response times can be met (time for a firefighter to reach the apparatus and be ready to depart).
Separate the diverse and sometimes conflicting functions such as industrial maintenance spaces and residential spaces.



Apparatus Bays
By placing the apparatus bay between the maintenance and support functions and the residential and administrative functions, both primary layout goals can be accomplished. Some of the adjacencies shown above may be accommodated through a hallway rather than a direct entrance/exit from one space to another. This is particularly true with the apparatus bay and the day room as many facility spaces require an adjacency with these two spaces.

This approach to the layout can also accommodate expansion of the apparatus bay on the other side of the support and maintenance areas, although care must be taken to ensure that internal response times can be met after any expansion.

Sizing the apparatus bay is critical, and it should be designed to accommodate variable vehicle sizes. Typically, the entire room is sized based on the bay size for the largest vehicle in the fleet or the largest anticipated vehicle. Bays also include vehicle exhaust removal systems, compressed air and power drop lines, and hot and cold water connections. Bay doors must also accommodate the largest vehicle and include a manual means to open in case of power failure. Ideally, the site will accommodate drive-through bays.



Apparatus Bay Support and Vehicle Maintenance
Apparatus bay support functions include cleaning and maintenance areas for the firefighter's self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA), protective clothing, fire extinguishers, and other equipment. It also includes storage areas for firefighting gear and equipment and secure storage for medical supplies. Some of these areas are specialized spaces for disinfecting protective equipment and for maintaining and recharging the SCBA in a clean environment. See also Light Industrial space type.

Agent storage is typically provided in a single-story structure separate from the fire station building. It should be located along the drive leading into the Apparatus Bay for ease of loading and unloading of fire fighting agents. In some cases, it may be attached to the main structure.

A vehicle maintenance bay may also be included in a fire station. It is a dedicated maintenance area for the fire fighting apparatus and includes a heavy-duty lift and all utility connections required for large vehicle maintenance.

Administrative and Training Areas
Administrative areas include standard offices and conference and training rooms. The area will also likely include additional specialized spaces such as the chief's office with sleeping and shower facilities and computer training/testing facilities for firefighter continuing education. Some stations may include a highly specialized dispatch room for receiving emergency calls from the public.

Residential Areas

Sample day room layout for a fire station.
Developed by DMJM Design, Arlington, VA
The day room accommodates kitchen, dining, and living/recreation functions. It is often separated into subspaces for those three functions, but an open design may also be effective to encourage interaction between the spaces. The dining space may also double as training or meeting space and might include provisions for audiovisual equipment.

Dorm room design can vary widely from station to station and department to department. Each firefighter is provided with a place to sleep, work, and store personal items. Careful consideration should be given to the location and design of the area to ensure response times can be met. See Emerging Issues below for more information on dorm rooms.

Other residential areas include a laundry room, a physical fitness room, bathrooms and showers, and possible additional recreation spaces such as an outdoor patio and game room.

B. Design Considerations
Key design goals and considerations for fire stations include the following:

Promote Occupant Quality of Life
Fire stations are occupied 24 hours a day, seven days a week by personnel in continuous 24-hour shifts. Therefore, ensuring a comfortable living environment for the firefighters is paramount:

Provide ample natural light.
Provide individual dorm rooms, if budget allows.
Provide ample recreation areas and separate noisy areas (such as a game room) from quieter areas (such as a television room).
Avoid institutional and unnatural finishes, textures, and colors.
Maintain a Safe and Healthy Environment
As above, due to the continuous occupation of the facility by firefighters and the presence of hazardous materials, special attention must be given to designing the facility to accommodate equipment and operational strategies to both protect the occupants and maintain a healthy environment. Consider the following critical elements:

Provide a secure facility for both personnel and materials such as controlled medical supplies and hazardous fire suppression agents.
Use non-toxic building materials and improved maintenance practices.
Ensure good indoor air quality and abundant natural light in the residential and administrative areas.
Ensure good ventilation of industrial areas such as the apparatus bay and prevent contamination of clean spaces such as the SCBA maintenance areas.
Ensure that equipment, furnishings, and finishes do not contain asbestos or lead.
Ensure Flexibility
As fire fighting technology evolves, fire stations need to evolve as well. Consider the following areas:

Plan for potential expansion, both in the apparatus bay area and the residential areas.
Ensure appropriate product/systems integration.
Design for the changing nature of work.
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EMERGING ISSUES
One emerging issue in fire station design is the additional attention given to firefighter quality of life. As noted above in design considerations, one way to promote quality of life is to provide separate dorm rooms for each firefighter. Typically, each room is shared between firefighters of different crews/shifts so that the room is never occupied simultaneously. Individual lockers are provided for each firefighter. A bed, nightstand, and desk are shared.

Some departments are taking this one step further and providing separate beds for each firefighter. Wall-beds, also known as "Murphy-beds," are also becoming a common alternative. These combine the qualities of an individual bed with added space savings.




ELEVANT CODES AND STANDARDS
Standard federal and state building codes apply, as appropriate. There are also numerous codes and standards that apply to the staffing and operation of a fire/rescue department; key standards include the following:

Airport Rescue and Firefighting Station Building Design Advisory Circular 150/5210-15, by U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). 1987.
Fire Suppression Rating Schedule (FSRS), by Insurance Services Office, Inc. (ISO).
NFPA 403: Standard for Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting Services at Airports, by National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). 2003.
NFPA 1500: Fire Department Occupational Safety and Health Program, by NFPA. 2002.
NFPA 1581: Fire Department Infection Control Program, by NFPA. 2005.
NFPA 1710: Standard for the Organization and Deployment of Fire Suppression Operations, Emergency Medical Operations, and Special Operations to the Public by Career Fire Departments, by NFPA. 2004.
NFPA 1720: Standard for the Organization and Deployment of Fire Suppression Operations, Emergency Medical Operations, and Special Operations to the Public by Volunteer Fire Departments, by NFPA. 2004.
Department of Defense
DoD Instruction 6055.6 DoD Fire and Emergency Services Program.
UFC 4-730-10 Fire Stations
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MAJOR RESOURCES
Organizations
International Association of Fire Chiefs
International Association of Fire Fighters
National Fire Protection Association

MUCHAS GRACIAS POR TU AYUDA, JOSE.
LASTIMA QUE NO SE PUEDE CONSEGUIR MATERIAL DE CONSULTA EN ESPAÑOL.
MUCHAS GRACIAS
SALUDOS

GUSTAVO

How do cities decide how many fire stations or firefighters they should have?

It is often asserted that determining how many firefighters are needed on duty is more of a political and financial decision than just about anything else. We would all like to have a fire station on every corner, but that is just not possible for many reasons. There are many factors involved. In some states the firefighters have the right to "collective bargaining". In this process the firefighters and the city decide upon a contract that defines the pay, benefits, responsibilities and personnel strength of the fire department. In much of the U. S. no such contract exists. City management is free to do whatever they feel is best. This is not to say that they can do anything they want. Cities are still run by politicians or the people appointed by politicians. If the citizens do not feel that they are being properly cared for or that their tax dollars are not being spent correctly, someone may be held accountable. In most cases the fire chief and sometimes the firefighters association will have valuable input.

Cities in the same general region of the country will often be set up similarly. But the farther you are apart, the greater the differences might be. Let's compare four very different departments, Irving, Texas, Newton County GA, North Bay, ON, and Manchester, New Hampshire. These departments have a similar number of firefighters and stations, yet they are very different in population and land area.

Irving TX - www.ci.irving.tx.us/fire/

11 Stations
11 Fire engines
4 Trucks
6 ALS MICU's (Ambulances)
Just over 300 firefighters. (including EMS)
Population - Just under 200,000
Land Area - About 68 sq Miles
Manchester NH - www.manchesternh.gov/CityGov/MFD/Home.html

10 Fire Stations
11 Fire Engines
5 Trucks (and some "Quads" and "Quints")
No MICU's (MFD apparently does not run EMS)
About 250 firefighters.
Population 107,000
Land Area - 33.9 sq miles
Newton County GA - www.newtoncountyfireservice.org/

12 Fire stations (Some staffed with paid personnel, some with volunteers.)
12 Fire Engines with some quints/trucks.
No MICU's (Hospital based county wide private EMS. Note: 2 of these MICU's are quartered in County stations.)
80 Paid FF's with 50+ Volunteers
Population served about 96,000.
Land area served about 278 sq miles.
North Bay, Ontario, Canada - www.cityofnorthbay.ca/fire/

3 Fire stations
3 Fire Engines with some quints/trucks.
No fire department MICU's (City based Emergency Ambulance Service.)
83 Paid FF's
Population served about 54,000.
Land area served 314.91 sq KM (121.6 sq mi).
As you can see, there are big differences in the level of protection each city has chosen. Or is there?

Irving - 1 Firefighter hired for every 638 citizens. 1 fire station for every 17419 citizens

Manchester - 1 firefighter for every 428 citizens. 1 station for every 9727 citizens.

Newton County- 1 paid firefighter for about ever 1000 citizens. (But one paid and 1 vol. FF for every 500 citizens) 1 Sta. for every 6417 Citizens.

North Bay, Ontario - 1 firefighter for every 662 citizens. One station for every 18000 people.

On the surface it appears that Irving has about half the protection that Manchester has. Irving has twice the land area, and almost twice the population. Newton county has much more land area but half the population. And yet they have about the same amount of firefighters. If you remove the EMS personnel needed to staff 6 MICU's, from Irving's stats, you see even more similarity in the number of firefighters hired. Both Manchester NH, and North Bay, ON, have four shifts/platoons so the number of people actually on duty must be divided by 4, instead of three, as in Irving or Newton county. When you compare Rochester and Irving to Newton County there appears to be differences, but are as drastic as it may first seem? Are there valid reasons for these differences? I am sure that the government of all these cities think so. You have to consider many factors.

These are very different fire departments from very different communities. Manchester is older. Irving has some of the toughest fire codes in the nation. Newton Co. is spread out. Manchester has collective bargaining. Irving has an excellent water supply system for fire hydrants. Manchester is in the north east where winters are harsh and keeping warm, in older buildings can be a cause for fires. In parts of Newton Co. and North bay, obtaining water might be a problem. There are probably other huge differences as well. A large number of the structures in Manchester are buildings that are three story, wood frame and four feet apart. When one catches on fire you can often lose three. It's also just a fact of life, fire departments in the north east are very different than those in the south or west. I am sure that all four city governments are trying to do their best with regard to protecting it's citizens. Not only that, but the fire chief of each department certainly has a say in what is needed to protect the city. The money available is another unfortunate fact. One must consider the tax base and the cost of living in each area. I have no idea what the tax base of Manchester is. If you consider that Irving and Newton County works 24/48 and Manchester is 24/72 and North Bay used a four platoon 10/14 schedule, the ratio of people on duty to population becomes not so dramatic of a difference. Irving can have almost 100 people on duty while Manchester will have about 50 each day. Newton County may only have about 20 people on duty but they have a reserve of up to 75 volunteers to assist them. North Bay has 20 people on duty every day. If you look at it this way then fire protection is about the same.

North Bay - 1 firefighter on duty for every 2700 people. (Without fire dept. EMS)
Irving - 1 firefighter for every 2000. (With the EMS service.)
Manchester, NH - 1 firefighter on duty for every 1725 people (W/O EMS)
Newton County, GA - 1 (paid) firefighter on duty for every 2300 people (w/o EMS) (But Newton Co. has as many volunteers as paid firefighters.)
It is easy to see that there are may factors that go into the decision of what is the appropriate number of firefighters a department should have available. The types of buildings, the climate, if EMS is run by the fire department, the work schedule. Some people will attempt to apply a "rule of thumb" that says, "One firefighter for every 1000 people in population." This simply does not fit most fire departments.

When we try to determine how many firefighters we need, we also have to consider all the other ways that cities have tried to accomplish that number. This includes volunteers and PSO departments. For years the ISO was a big factor in deciding staffing for fire departments. In many states this is no longer the case. Georgia is one of the states where the state government requires ISO to be a factor in the insurance rates and therefore they have major influence on fire department staffing and equipment.


Why do firefighters work 24/48, or other strange hours?
This question has both a simple answer and a very long one. I will do my best.

Simple Answer - Because they can. U.S. Labor laws, which regulates when you have to pay overtime for working more than 40 hours a week, exempts firefighters.

Long answer - Many fire departments DO NOT work 24 /48. Some states require the paying of overtime (1.5 X reg. pay) for hours over 40, even for firefighters. Some states have unions and collective bargaining and the firefighters have a contract that gives them something other than 24/48.

There are many kinds of schedules.
- 12/12 for so many days then a certain number of days off.
- 10 /14 You work so many days consisting of 10 hours shifts and then some days of 14. (Usually nights.)
- Four - 10 hour shifts a week.
- Even Five - 8 hour days
- Some even work 24/72. RARE. (But that would be cool huh?)
- On the west coast you can find firefighters who work 24 on then 24 off for a period then have a long time off.
- The Maui (Hawaii) fire department works 24/24 as above but they have one station on the island of Lanai that is considered a remote station. Here they work 3 days on and 6 days off.
- NEW! A few fire departments have either switched to, or are considering, 48/96. (2 days on 4 days off) For more information go to: San Jose FD Local Union site on the subject (Here you can download a PDF.)
- Just about any combination is possible.

Some departments have people who just work weekends. They will work 40 hours just on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. They will do this by working something like two 14's and a 12 on those three days.

www.fireserviceinfo.com/QA.html#stations

Gustavo, me temo que no encontraras mucho en español. Desafortunamente nuestra cultura apuesta más a la improvisacion y no esta acostumbrada a fijar estándares que pueden servir de medición.

Gracias a ti por estar en nuestro foro.

José

Just that is necessary, I will participate. Together we can come to a right answer. I am assured.