Hamden Central Fire Station Returns Fully Renovated

Fire units return to old home in Hamden (video) Published: Thursday, June 21, 2012 By Ann DeMatteo, Register Staff adematteo@nhregister.com / Twitter: @annddematteo HAMDEN — After 32 months away from the center of town, Squad 1 and Rescue 1 are back in the fire station at Memorial Town Hall. “The goal was to get them back in here as soon as I could,” Fire Chief David A. Berardesca said this week. Firefighters and apparatus that worked out of what is known as Station 4 were transferred to other firehouses in fall 2009, when the Memorial Town Hall renovation began. Town Hall renovations are incomplete; the police station has moved to some Town Hall space, as well as a 40,000-square-foot addition. This summer, Berardesca, Deputy Fire Chief Bob Surprise and their administrative staff will move from Hamden Government Center to space in Town Hall. Berardesca and firefighters say they are happy with the upgrade, which includes a new exhaust system and heaters in the garage bay. The kitchen had been in the formerly dingy basement and now is on the second floor, in an all-purpose room where firefighters can relax in large lounge chairs and watch a large-screen television on off hours. There are also four new bunks, new lockers, a room for the watch commander and new bathrooms and showers. The exercise room is in the basement. The whole station has been painted. “It’s a welcome relief. It’s nice to be back home,” said Firefighter Paul Turner after he backed Squad 1, a fire pumper, into the bay Monday morning. Now that the truck has returned to Station 4 from the Ridge Road fire station, and Rescue 1 has come back from Mount Carmel, response times will improve, Berardesca said. When Station 4 closed, other stations had to expand their territories, meaning firefighters sometimes took a bit longer to arrive at calls. While contractors continue to work on “punch list” items for the fire station, the Town Building Committee is working to be sure the cracked mahogany doors on the garage bay are replaced. The cracking was noticed soon after the doors were installed late last year. “While it was probably not the best choice of materials for a fire station, they were installed and it was realized the wood was faulty,” said Curt Leng, chief administrative officer. The doors are going to be replaced soon with a more traditional metal fire station door that will have a mahogany look. The company that provided the doors will pay for the new ones, Leng said. Other mahogany doors throughout the refurbished Town Hall have faulty wood and discussions are under way to replace them with other wood doors or with mahogany-looking doors, Leng said. It is expected Town Hall will reopen at the end of the year, after the two old police station buildings are remediated, razed and a parking garage built, Leng said.