New Sedalia Fire Station on Track to Open October 1

The new three-bay fire station on East 5th Street should be open by October 1, according to Sedalia Fire Chief Matt Irwin, who gave KSIS a personal tour of the facility currently under construction.

“It will house two companies – a squad and an engine. It does give us room. All our trucks can fit in the building. It will allow for us to put a ladder truck over here,” he said.

Radiant heaters have been installed on the ceiling of the engine bay, and an exhaust capture system will be installed soon just like the one in use on West 16th.

“All of the garage door openers are against the wall, which is different than any of the other stations we’ve ever built. This allows us to put the truck in and be able to tilt the cab up without hitting the garage door system. On 16th Street, we have to pull the truck out or back it up in the bay so we don’t hit the garage door openers. This one is designed so we can tilt the cab up, check the oil, check the belts and do maintenance every morning so we don’t have to pull the truck outside,” Chief Irwin said.

A decontamination room will also serve as a safe room in the event of severe weather at the station. It is a brick room with a concrete roof and a FEMA-rated door.

“All of our dirty gear will be washed and dried in here, so we don’t have to bring any gear into the actual building. There is also an adjoining shower and bathroom.

“So if we go to a house or facility that has bed bugs, or something like that, or come in contact with bodily fluids, they (the firefighters) can come in here, strip down, take a shower, wash their clothes before they actually go into the living area and back to their bedrooms so we don’t get an infestation of bed bugs, or anything like that, Chief Irwin said.

That practice came about during the days of Covid, the fire chief noted, when firefighters would have to respond to a Covid-positive residence, and the practice has continued through today.

The new fire house has six bedrooms (with no access by the general public)  and two bathrooms. Each bedroom also has a gear locker and desk. The two showers are zero depth, Irwin noted, making them easier to clean and reduce trip hazards.

The utility room has a washer & dryer for firefighters to wash their linens. The SFD provides sheets, pillow cases and comforters and each firefighter is required to wash their sheets & pillow cases after each shift.

One hallway that leads directly to the engine bay will serve as a communication room with radios, chargers and monitors with live feeds from the railroad crossings.

Instead of a water fountain at the new station, there is a water jug filler. “No one drinks from the water fountain,” Irwin said, “they fill their water jugs.”

“There are a lot of things in this building that I like. There are a few things, due to budget cuts, that we couldn’t add. And I understand that. But yes, it will be serviceable for the next 50 years,” Chief Irwin told KSIS.

Construction crews are on scene Monday through Friday, 8-5, in an attempt to be finished by Oct. 1. “We did have some weather, if you will, that slowed us down, so they are a few days behind, but nothing I don’t think they can handle,” Irwin said.

Nabholz is the general contractor for the project, which includes two offices and a conference room.

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“Every morning the shift gets together and preplans their morning, discuss what they’re going to do, what activities they want to get done, their goals for the day, that kind of thing,” the fire chief said.

There is also a workout room in the new facility. “It will get a lot of use. My guys are working out a lot, so we will have workout equipment available to them here.

A lot of landscaping work will still be needed once the facility is open, he noted.

A fire suppression sprinkler system was installed at the new fire house. “We follow our own code by putting a sprinkler system in the building,” Chief Irwin said.

A fire hydrant was installed at the new firefighter training site located southwest of the fire station. The site, with brown walls and numerous red doors, has variable levels, with one, two and four stories, as well as a simulated roof on one end.

The site isn’t just for Sedalia firefighters, Chief Irwin noted.

“Any department that wants to come use it, whether it’s City, Pettis County Fire Protection District, Jeff City, Warrensburg – it doesn’t matter.  I told (Pettis County Fire) Chief Harding he could have a key to it. All we ask is that if they’re going to light a fire, at least one member of our staff needs to be here,” Irwin stated. “There’s a lot of things here that we can break. Even though we can burn in it, if you let the fire get too terribly hot, you can damage the walls, so we have to monitor all that.”

“We’ve also offered it up to Nucor, because they have a high-angle team, if they need to do some repelling or high-angle stuff, they are more than welcome to come over and use it,” he said.

“The Sedalia Police Department is more than welcome to use it, also” Irwin said, to perform a room clearance exercise, for instance.

If a training team prefers not to light a live fire, they can fill the area with smoke from a control panel.