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City, local fire officials and community members gathered in Hamilton on Monday, Sept. 12, to celebrate a groundbreaking for the new fire hall. “This is an exciting day for the Hamilton Fire Department as well as the city and the community that we serve,” said Hamilton Fire Chief Brad Mohn.
City, local fire officials and community members gathered at the corner of Foxfield Street and Skeels Avenue in Hamilton on Monday to celebrate a groundbreaking for the new fire hall.
At approximately 12,500 square feet, the new location will give firefighters some much needed room for equipment, along with common spaces and living quarters designed with firefighter safety in mind. The new station design includes four bays to house fire trucks, a fire hose tower and decontamination space, as well as offices, counseling boxes and a fitness center.
“This is an exciting day for the Hamilton Fire Department as well as the city and the community that we serve,” Hamilton Fire Chief Brad Mohn said. “This is a state-of-the-art designed station for firefighter safety. It’s designed with expansion of services in mind and our goal is to serve the city and the area for 50 years, if not 75 years with this station … The mayor and city council has been instrumental in making this hope a reality, or this need come to fruition. I'd like to thank the city staff as well as the residents of the area. The Hamilton community has always been very supportive of the fire department, and continue to be.”
A digital rendering of the new fire hall to be built in Hamilton. Officials met on Monday to celebrate a groundbreaking for the station.
The current fire hall located in downtown Hamilton was built in 1907, posing challenges for the department when it comes to space, as well as keeping up with equipment and safety protocol changes. When the downtown station was built the department relied on horse-drawn wagons. Currently the department is forced to special order vehicles because the bays at the station are not large enough to fit standard trucks. Ventilation systems in the building are also aging and inadequate, posing a possible health hazard for firefighters. Fire trucks and equipment that are unable to be properly decontaminated can bring dangerous carcinogens into living quarters. The new fire hall will be equipped with “hot” and “cold” zones that allow for proper equipment storage and decontamination.
"It has larger bays … so that will save the taxpayers some money because we've had to order custom-made fire trucks to fit the station. Now we can order a conventional type fire truck,” Mohn said. “The other big thing is firefighter health. Firefighter cancer has skyrocketed over the last decade or so, and this station is designed with a hot zone and a cold zone to keep the carcinogens and the diesel exhaust and stuff away, out of the office area, out of the living quarter areas.”
Considerable concern exists surrounding cancer among firefighters. A 2020 study cited by the Center for Disease Control’s firefighter resources confirmed previous findings of excess mortality rates in firefighters from all cancers and several site-specific cancers as well as positive exposure-response relations for lung cancer and leukemia. The study looked at approximately 30,000 career firefighters from the San Francisco, Chicago and Philadelphia fire departments and found “these firefighters had a 9% increase in cancer incidence and a 14% increase in cancer mortality compared with the U.S. general population with elevations observed for respiratory, digestive and urinary cancers as well as mesothelioma.”
Architect Mike Dowling explains aspects of the design to a group of community members at the groundbreaking for the new Hamilton Fire Hall on Monday, Sept. 12.
“It's sort of the big difference between old fire stations and modern fire stations,” said architect Mike Dowling. “We've recognized over the years that firefighters have safety equipment, but when they go into a fire they're getting ash and all kinds of stuff that collects on their clothing. So they always come back into a decon room where they put their gear immediately off the truck, but the trucks might have stuff on them. So what we've learned over the years is that we actually create a pressurization zone where the pressure is more on the cold zone side so that any carcinogens actually get pushed back into the bays … There's a sort of hard line between the hot zone of the building and the cold zone of the building. So we have air locks that keep that space separated. So as firefighters come back from a fire, any carcinogens that would be on their gear would be separated and cleaned.”
Cancer risk in firefighters is a subject that hits especially close to home around the Hamilton fire hall these days, as one of their own is currently fighting a battle with the disease.
“This is an exciting day for the Hamilton Fire Department as well as the city and the community that we serve,” Hamilton Fire Chief Brad Mohn said at the groundbreaking for the new fire hall.
“We've just had one of my assistant chiefs diagnosed with cancer,” Mohn said. “He's battling it. He's doing well, but it is one of the cancers qualified for the presumptive illness disease. He has been on the department for 19 years, and he's been diagnosed with cancer and he's fighting that now.”
Hamilton Mayor Dominic Farrenkopf also discussed the safety concerns for firefighters and how the new design aims to address those issues.
“Just in speaking with the chief, a lot of things that catch fire in houses, now there's synthetic products. It's not like wood furniture anymore. The plastics and the fibers, the synthetic fibers, the paint, everything on new construction and furniture — it's all burns different. So when you're exposed to that, it's very important to try to limit how much exposure you have. And so having a hot zone and that cold zone, it is very important to firefighter safety and health.”
The new fire house has been a long-term goal for Farrenkopf since becoming mayor.
“When I took office five years ago, Chief Mohn and I immediately assessed the need of the Hamilton volunteer fire department recognized that getting a fire station that would better serve the community and the volunteers,” Farrenkopf said. “We recognized right away that it was a necessity and we began working on this project — it’s been years in the making, it's certainly not something that comes overnight. We've been working extremely hard as to finance the project.”
The city is still raising funds to meet the $7.1 million overall project costs for the fire hall. The City of Hamilton currently has $1.7 million set aside for the project and has received a $600,000 Community Development Block Grant for the station. The city has also been approved for a $3.2 million loan from the Board of Investments, leaving a shortfall of approximately $1.6 million in funding to be raised. Those who wish to donate can send a check to Hamilton City Hall, 23 South 2nd St., Hamilton, MT, 59840. Please include “fire hall” in the memo line of the check. Donors will be recognized on plaques in the new building.
“This is one of those things that is going to take the entire community's support to make it a reality,” Farrenkopf said. “It just feels really good that we're at this stage today breaking ground on the station.”
A digital rendering of the new fire hall to be built in Hamilton. Officials met on Monday to celebrate a groundbreaking for the station.
Jessica Abell is the editor of the Ravalli Republic.
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City, local fire officials and community members gathered in Hamilton on Monday, Sept. 12, to celebrate a groundbreaking for the new fire hall. “This is an exciting day for the Hamilton Fire Department as well as the city and the community that we serve,” said Hamilton Fire Chief Brad Mohn.
Architect Mike Dowling explains aspects of the design to a group of community members at the groundbreaking for the new Hamilton Fire Hall on Monday, Sept. 12.
“This is an exciting day for the Hamilton Fire Department as well as the city and the community that we serve,” Hamilton Fire Chief Brad Mohn said at the groundbreaking for the new fire hall.
A digital rendering of the new fire hall to be built in Hamilton. Officials met on Monday to celebrate a groundbreaking for the station.
A digital rendering of the new fire hall to be built in Hamilton. Officials met on Monday to celebrate a groundbreaking for the station.
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