The $13 million Norwalk Fire Department headquarters, which replaced an earlier iteration on the same footprint, began responding to calls in early October. The official opening day was Oct. 5, but Assistant Chief Laurence Reilly, with 38 years fighting Norwalk”™s fires, said the first response had been a few days earlier. The new station averages about seven responses per day.
The department”™s temporary home during the two-year construction had been across the street.
Norwalk maintains five fire stations with the new, three-story structure fronting Connecticut Avenue and I-95 serving as headquarters. The 31,000-square-foot building designates 29,000 square feet for the fire department and 1,000 square feet each for a state operations center and city computer server center, both costing $1 million with their own financing independent of the fire building budget. The new building should serve the city at least through 2063, 50 years.
The department fields a cadre of 140 in five stations. A minimum 10 responders are on duty in the Connecticut Avenue headquarters at any time.
“Personally, I think it”™s nice,” Reilly said touring the facility on a recent afternoon. “I didn”™t realize how bad the old building was. When we moved in here it was like, Oh wow ”” that old place was pretty bad: design issues, window issues, floor issues. This building has natural light on the apparatus floor. The old building”™s apparatus floor was like a cave.”
Reilly, of course, does not want your business and offered holiday words of advice: change your smoke detector batteries and be careful with candles and fireplaces.
