Creating Fire Stations with Safe and Healthy Environments

During an all-day Eco-charrette, key strategies were identified for creating safe and healthy environments for firefighters. The strategies range from design to reduce workplace injuries and enhancing indoor air quality through materials selection to providing optimal thermal comfort for firefighters. This technical brief outlines these criteria tailored to the Seattle Fire Department. Thermal comfort is critical to firefighter health and safety, particularly when returning from events. One way to provide and significantly improve indoor air quality is to decouple ventilation design from heating and cooling. For example, flexible strategies similar to those used at Crosspointe Fire Station can be employed to prevent crosscontamination and improve indoor air quality.

Cooling-dominated climate is a climate that is warmer than human comfort standards for the majority of the year. In cooling-dominated climates, buildings are more often trying to cool off their occupants using their cooling systems than trying to heat occupants up.

Operative temperature is a measure of the thermal comfort in a space. A combination of 6 comfort parameters, as described by ASHRAE Standard 55. See "thermal comfort" sidebar on page 3 for more information.

What are the key strategies for safe and healthy fire stations?

Currently, neighborhood fire stations in Seattle are not meeting the thermal comfort requirements of firefighters, particularly during summer months. Most neighborhood fire stations are not equipped with cooling or ventilation systems that are able to provide comfortable temperatures. During a half-day eco-charrette hosted to identify neighborhood fire station design strategies, firefighters in attendance suggested the following key criteria for health and safety:

1. reducing possibilities for work place injuries,
2. maintaining a comfortable, steady temperature in fire stations,
3. providing the ability for rapid cooling for post-event recovery, and
4. reducing toxins indoors

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