NEW FIRE STATION

Southland Times, Issue 19395, 8 November 1924, Page 5

NEW FIRE STATION

TENDERS BEING CALLED. AN UP-TO-DATE STRUCTURE. Tenders are at present being called for a new Fire Brigade Station at Invercargill, for which the Invercargill Fire Board has already been granted permission by the Department of Internal Affairs to raise the sum of £lB,OOO, and is negotiating for a further £2OOO. The site of the new station occupies an acre of ground immediately adjoining the Baptist Church in Esk street.. The station, which will be a two-storied building, will have a frontage to the street of 114 feet, and the main buliding will have an extreme depth of 107 feet. The main structure will be of brick and concrete. The architect (Mr Edmund R. Wilson) informed a Southland Times reporter who called on him yesterday that it would be laid out on the lines of a modern central fire station, as suiting cities in New Zealand. A certain sized station only is desirable, said Mr Wilson, because as a city expands sub-stations become desirable. The portion at present being built will be constructed so as to be eventually complete in itself, and Leaves to be built, in the future, accommodation for six married firemen. The site itself will be left open to the street, and the front laid out in lawns, with the margins planted out with shrubs, giving a frontage to the living quarters of the Superintendent and Deputy-Superintendent. The rear portion, immediately behind the station will be paved and used as a drill area. The centre feature of the station itself is the engine-room, and this makes provision for an eventual equipment of six machines. Immediately above it is a recreation room of equal area where the firemen can exercise in wet weather or at nights, and it is equipped as a complete gymnasium, and can also be used as an entertainment hall. It will measure 50 feet by 40 feet. On the ground floor round the engineroom are arranged the principal working rooms, comprising watch room, battery room, Superintendent’s and Deputy-Superin-tendent's offices, brigade store room, etc. On the west side will be located the secretarial department, comprising secretary’s office and Board room. To the rear of this, on the ground floor, will be the single men’s dining room and kitchen, and the cook’s quarters; the washing and drying accommodation for men returning from service; lavatory accommodation; a boiler room for heating the greater part of the building with hot water; and other necessary accommodation of a like nature. Above these rooms on the west flank will be sleeping and sitting room accommodation for 16 single firemen. The east flank is taken up mainly with double siorey residences of the Superintendent and Deputy-Super-intendent. At the rear erf the main building and independent of it will be the engineer's and carpenter’s workshops. It is intended to equip the station in a most up-to-date manner. Everything about it will be extremely simple, but strong and durable. A tower rising 75 feet from the ground will form part of the building and will be need for the purpose of hose drying. At the present time all the old buildings on the property in Esk street have been cleared away, with the exception of a brick cottage, which will be retained temporarily as quarters for one married fireman.