Ceremonial Grand Opening of New Community Fire/EMS Station

A ceremonial Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting of the newest Fire/EMS facility was held on Tuesday, August 31, 2010.  St. Joseph Fire/Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Station 806, located at 2901 St. Joseph Drive in Largo, Maryland is the Prince George's County, Maryland, is a state-of-the-art facility, which will provide a functional and safe work environment for our firefighters and paramedics, as well as bath, shower, and locker facilities to accommodate our increasing number of female personnel.


Service delivery to our community

St. Joseph Fire/EMS Station 806 is one of forty-five (45) Fire/EMS stations strategically located throughout Prince George’s County. The primary response area for Station 806 is nine (9) square miles; however, the station serves many of the surrounding communities, including: Springdale, Woodmore, Glenarden, Largo, Ardmore, Lanham, Kettering, Enterprise, and Landover.

• Apparatus: The station will house a variety of modern fire and EMS resources, including: Engine 806; Rescue Squad 806; Ambulance 806 (Basic Life Support); the Technical Rescue Team; Battalion Chief 801, and the Duty Chief (Department Shift Commander).

• Personnel: Staffed with five (5) career personnel 24-hours a day, which does not include the Battalion Chief.

• Call Volume: The projected demand for service for the primary response area is approximately 5000 calls a year.

Building features

St. Joseph Fire/EMS Station 806 is a 15,948 square foot one story facility that includes: offices, living space, an exercise room, separate sleeping/locker facilities for men & women, training/meeting room, decontamination room, vehicle/equipment maintenance room

• Apparatus Bay: Approximately 6,900 square feet with five (5) apparatus bays.

• Training/Meeting Room: Equipped with audiovisual equipment, multiple computer network connections, and space to accommodate between 24-42 persons, depending upon room configuration.

• Training Tower: Enables our personnel to conduct realistic training evolutions without leaving our response area. Training tower is not equipped for live fire simulations.

• Total design and construction costs (including land acquisition) are approximately $5.3 million, funded with Prince George’s County general obligation bonds.

• Alerting System: Equipped with a First-In Fire Station Alerting System, which will reduce response time and firefighter stress. The system technology utilizes Cardiac Kind ramped tones and a human voice to alert personnel, in conjunction with low intensity red light and other visual indicators.
 
Images are by Mike Yourishin - Office of the County Executive, Teresa A. Crisman - Press Information Office and Mark E. Brady, Press Information Office.  Video is by Jerome Rivers - Office of the County Executive.
 
You can read the GAZETTE NEWSPAPER account of the ceremony by clicking here.