Millions of dollars approved for upgrades to Indianapolis fire stations

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — The average age of an Indianapolis Fire Department Station is 36-years-old.

Some of them like station 20 on Emerson and 16th street are 70-years-old. Earlier this month, the City-County Council approved a $7 million bond to completely rebuild that station.

An additional $1 million was set aside for improvements to several different fire stations.

“You can see where the bricks are starting to flake and it’s doing this in several places around the building,” Division Chief of Logistics Kevan Crawley said while walking around station 11 on Washington Street.

The 50-year-old structure also has an uneven floor and pavement.

“These guys come out here in the middle of the night to go on calls and this poses a trip hazard,” Crawley said.

There are also unseen hazards, like fire fighting equipment that emits cancerous fumes. IFD wants to build a separate storage area to store the equipment.

“Our firefighters work a 24-hour shift. They are off for 24 hours so we essentially spend a 3rd of our lives in these buildings,” Crawley said..

Space inside the average firehouse has shrunk over the years as the station was retrofitted to accommodate a changing workforce.

“This wooden structure originally wasn’t in the fire station. That has women’s quarters in it. It has physical fitness areas in it so our firefighters can stay fit and do their job longer,” Crawley said.

He adds IFD has made the most of its fire stations, but much like an old home, even firehouses need repairs.

“We talk about the investment we make not just in our structures and our fire apparatus, but our investment we make in our firefigthers. We prolong their careers, we make them healthier,” he said.

An additional $7.5 million was appropriated to build a new firehouse replacing the existing one in Broad Ripple, which is nearly 100-years-old.