HQ Station in Bridgeport, Conn.
The new headquarters of the Bridgeport, Conn., Fire Department features a structural division of line and administrative functions.
The 104 X 155-foot, steel frame building with precast concrete panel walls has a two-story section for four fire companies and a four-story section that houses administrative and fire alarm offices. The cost of the station and land was $3 million.
The station, which houses two engine companies, a ladder company and a squad, has a four-bay, drive-through apparatus room, 68 X 91 feet. There is a spacious ramp in front that opens to Congress Street. Department cars are housed in an eight-bay garage in the administrative section that faces a large parking lot leading to Housatonic Avenue. A car wash is housed in one of the bays of this garage.
—Staff photos.
Besides a communications or watch room, the first floor includes a hose maintenance and storage room, offices for the company officers, a mechanic’s workshop, a storage room for turnout gear and an emergency generator room. There are separate toilet facilities for men and women, although Bridgeport has no women fire fighters.
The second floor has a large training room that extends the width of the building in the 58 X 104-foot administrative section as well as the customary eating, sleeping and recreation facilities.
Chief John F. Gleason and the two deputy chiefs have offices on the third floor of the administrative section. Also on this floor are the fire prevention bureau, a spacious general clerical office and a conference room.
On the fourth floor, the elevator that serves the administrative section opens to a lobby with security safeguards for the fire alarm and communications facilities occupying this floor. A dispatchers’ console is the terminus for the city’s telephone street box alarm system. Alongside the console is a teleprinter that links the dispatchers with the fire stations.
The fourth floor is actually a selfsustaining emergency operations area with cooking, toilet, shower and lounge facilities. Visible to the dispatchers through a glass partition is an emergency staff room that also contains telephone frames. In a rear corner is a radio and electronics repair shop. The communications supervisor has an office in the front of the building, next to the dispatchers’ area, and there is a small room for the storage of communications tapes.
