Westhaven Plans for Opening of New Fire Station

By EMILY R. WEST

Opening its newest station, the Franklin Fire Department will officially celebrate Ladder No. 8 along with the Westhaven community this weekend.

The public is invited to help celebrate the opening of Franklin Fire Station 8 in Westhaven on Saturday, Sept. 10.

The event will take place from 10 a.m. to noon at the new station, 200 Front Street. It will include a “hose-cutting” ceremony for the new station and a “wetdown” ceremony for the station’s new apparatus, Ladder 8.

Children and adults can help wash Ladder 8, “push” it into the bay, and place it into service. Station tours, refreshments and plastic fire hats for children will be available. Activities will be preceded by a moment of silence for Franklin Firefighter-Paramedic Dimitris “JD” Fotopoulos, who passed away over Labor Day weekend while on a church mission trip to Honduras.

The $3.8 million station shortens response times to the western areas of Franklin and provides back-up to downtown Station 1.  Designed by the Renaissance Group, the main level of the facility is 11,369 square feet and the mezzanine area provides an additional 1,443 square feet. 

The building features three apparatus bays, living and sleeping quarters, a gathering space, a kitchen and eating area, underground utilities and landscaping. 

Franklin-based Southeast Contractors, LLC was the general contractor.  Southern Land donated the land for the site. 

Here are some facts about Ladder 8: 

•  2015 Sutphen SA75 Quint Aerial ladder
• Cost $790,576.55 per truck
• Camera mounted at the top of the 75 foot ladder
•  Digital, wireless intercom system, which allows firefighters on the ground to talk to a firefighter at the top of the ladder.  Features hands-free operation for the firefighter on the ladder.
• SmartDock SCBA air pack holder built into the seats. The inertia- controlled brackets securely retain the SCBA while in motion and allow the SCBA to be removed when stationary.
• Medical glove holders built into door pockets
• Rear cab mounted transverse compartment – allows firefighters to easily access a shelf containing tools (spine boards, stokes baskets, pike poles, hooligan tools and more) they use on a daily basis from both sides of the truck
• Rear and side back-up cameras
• FRC brand lights, which help firefighters more easily spot addresses and light emergency scenes
•  PowerArc lighting – High-intensity LED emergency and scene lighting.
• Increased storage, including a larger inside storage cabinet for Advanced Life Support medical equipment and medications that need to be climate-controlled
• Built-in firefighting foam system for fighting most fires
•  Carries 500 gallons of water
• Firefighting pump can flow 2,000 gallons of water per minute.
•  Traditional bell mounted on the front bumper

Along with Ladder 5, the truck was showcased during a special edition of Franklin Heat, a 30-minute original Franklin Fire Department program that features Engineer Wylie Jones and Firefighter Jeff Boggs. 

Produced by Franklin TV, the episode follows Jones and Boggs as they travel to Ohio to see how Sutphen builds their fire trucks, something this family-owned business has been doing since 1890. 

They also learn about the inspection process that must be completed before the trucks are ready to roll and check out some new features of the apparatus.

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