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17 January 2025
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Fire stations of the world: Windom Emergency Services, Minnesota, US
The City of Windom needed more space to house all their fire apparatus and ambulance vehicles in a single building as their fleet had grown over the years. The need to house all of the apparatus and emergency vehicles in one location was critical to assure residents adequate response times required by NFPA 1710 standards. Brunton Architects and Engineers designed the City’s new emergency services building to include space for both fire and ambulance crews.
Specific spaces in the building include shared lounge area, sleeping quarters, multiple private offices, storage rooms, toilet rooms and showers, large meeting/training room suitable for 50 people, kitchen, apparatus bays for 10 fire apparatus, a garage space for three ambulances, a dedicated wash bay, SCBA room, hose drying tower and several other amenities. The exterior of the building is comprised of precast wall panels that borrow not only colour and materials from the surrounding neighbourhood but also borrow from the historic nature of them as well.
Since 1 September 2017, the Windom Fire Department and Windom Ambulance Service have been responding to emergency calls from under one roof. The City of Windom celebrated its new approximately $3,75 million Emergency Services Facility with a ribbon cutting and community open house. The facility at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 10th Street houses both fire and ambulance services. “A lot of times fire and ambulance share responsibilities,” said Windom Fire Chief Dan Ortmann. “So in order for us to respond out of one place all at one time is a huge benefit.”
Windom Ambulance Director Tim Hacker agreed that having one location for emergency responders as opposed to three locations spread across the city has been a benefit. He added that because there are individuals that are both firefighters and EMTs, having one centralized location where everyone responds helps cut down response time. “If fire needs more guys or if EMT needs more, we can pull some of those guys before we even get to the scene,” Hacker said.
According to Windom City Administrator Steve Nasby, the approximately 18 500-square-foot facility features five double deep, drive through fire bays and four ambulance bays. The facility also accommodates for fire and ambulance supply, ambulance storage, fire laundry, training rooms, offices and a kitchenette.
Nasby added that four sleeping rooms, lounge, kitchenette and restrooms located on the facility’s second floor allow first responders an area to stay when on-call. He anticipates the bunk area to be particularly valuable during inclement weather events and for crew members that reside in rural Windom. “The radius of where people can live and be on our crew is limited,” Nasby said. “There are people that live outside the radius that would like to be on our crew, so the sleeping room makes that possible.”
Ortmann said the ESF is also conveniently located next to the law enforcement centre, which allows for a better collaboration and closer working relationship between all first responders.
Nasby said the city has already contributed $1.9 million to the approximately $3.75 million price tag. The remaining $2 034 000 has been funded by a 20-year lease with an allowance for it to be paid off early. Nasby added that the city will have to make an annual payment of about $135 000 but it already has some funding commitments and others being discussed that would potentially reduce the additional property tax levy amount to about $20 000 to $30 000. That would amount to about a 1 to 1.25 percent property tax increase, he said. “So, I’d say right now, we’re able to work it to there is very minimal impact to the tax levy,” Nasby said.
According to Nasby, the Windom Ambulance Service responded to more than 725 emergency calls in the last year and the Windom Fire Department responds to between 45 and 50 per year. He added that there are 31 volunteer firefighters on the department and between 18 and 20 emergency medical technicians.
Source: Brunton Architects and Engineers, The Globe
Specific spaces in the building include shared lounge area, sleeping quarters, multiple private offices, storage rooms, toilet rooms and showers, large meeting/training room suitable for 50 people, kitchen, apparatus bays for 10 fire apparatus, a garage space for three ambulances, a dedicated wash bay, SCBA room, hose drying tower and several other amenities. The exterior of the building is comprised of precast wall panels that borrow not only colour and materials from the surrounding neighbourhood but also borrow from the historic nature of them as well.
Since 1 September 2017, the Windom Fire Department and Windom Ambulance Service have been responding to emergency calls from under one roof. The City of Windom celebrated its new approximately $3,75 million Emergency Services Facility with a ribbon cutting and community open house. The facility at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 10th Street houses both fire and ambulance services. “A lot of times fire and ambulance share responsibilities,” said Windom Fire Chief Dan Ortmann. “So in order for us to respond out of one place all at one time is a huge benefit.”
Windom Ambulance Director Tim Hacker agreed that having one location for emergency responders as opposed to three locations spread across the city has been a benefit. He added that because there are individuals that are both firefighters and EMTs, having one centralized location where everyone responds helps cut down response time. “If fire needs more guys or if EMT needs more, we can pull some of those guys before we even get to the scene,” Hacker said.
According to Windom City Administrator Steve Nasby, the approximately 18 500-square-foot facility features five double deep, drive through fire bays and four ambulance bays. The facility also accommodates for fire and ambulance supply, ambulance storage, fire laundry, training rooms, offices and a kitchenette.
Nasby added that four sleeping rooms, lounge, kitchenette and restrooms located on the facility’s second floor allow first responders an area to stay when on-call. He anticipates the bunk area to be particularly valuable during inclement weather events and for crew members that reside in rural Windom. “The radius of where people can live and be on our crew is limited,” Nasby said. “There are people that live outside the radius that would like to be on our crew, so the sleeping room makes that possible.”
Ortmann said the ESF is also conveniently located next to the law enforcement centre, which allows for a better collaboration and closer working relationship between all first responders.
Nasby said the city has already contributed $1.9 million to the approximately $3.75 million price tag. The remaining $2 034 000 has been funded by a 20-year lease with an allowance for it to be paid off early. Nasby added that the city will have to make an annual payment of about $135 000 but it already has some funding commitments and others being discussed that would potentially reduce the additional property tax levy amount to about $20 000 to $30 000. That would amount to about a 1 to 1.25 percent property tax increase, he said. “So, I’d say right now, we’re able to work it to there is very minimal impact to the tax levy,” Nasby said.
According to Nasby, the Windom Ambulance Service responded to more than 725 emergency calls in the last year and the Windom Fire Department responds to between 45 and 50 per year. He added that there are 31 volunteer firefighters on the department and between 18 and 20 emergency medical technicians.
Source: Brunton Architects and Engineers, The Globe