By Jim Bloch
What’s behind the handsome brick walls of Port Huron’s new Fire Station No. 1 on 10th Street?
Now is your chance to find out.
The Port Huron Fire Department will hold an open house to show off its new building, Thursday, Aug. 15, 5-7 p.m. The address of the facility is 1400 10th Street on the city’s south side; it is bounded by White and Chestnut streets.
“It is traditional at Fire Station openings to have a hose uncoupling ceremony in place of ribbon cutting,” said the department in a post on Facebook. “All are welcome to witness this event and check out the new fire station.”
The new building replaces the old Station No. 1 on River Street at the edge of the campus of St. Clair County Community College.
The old central fire station, built in 1960, was deemed to be functionally obsolete and structurally deficient to an extent that it was not prudent to renovate it, said Chief Cory Nicholson, describing the project during its planning stages.
Among many problems, the station was built when only men fought fires. The new building features separate rooms for the firefighters instead of a common sleeping area.
The new facility will bring PHFD “into the modern era of firefighting and rescue for today and the future,” said Nicholson. “Critical considerations such as equipment and PPE decontamination, air quality, carcinogen and pathogen mitigation, and other occupational health and safety items will finally be addressed.”
The facility features a new turnout gear washer/extractor and a new breathing air compressor/containment fill station. The previous units on River Street were over 20 years old and beyond their normal end-of-life.
The building is equipped with classrooms, smoke and heat detectors, sprinklers, building security and structural hardening to protect it from the increasing volatile weather brought by climate change.
It features six one-way apparatus bays toward the building’s north side, allowing the engines to pull out onto 10th Street, plus a variety of maintenance areas. The public will park and enter the building from the south side off White Street. Staff members park and enter the facility from the rear or east side. The south side will contain classroom space, living quarters, a fitness center, day room, kitchen and a public area.
Construction on the new station started at the end of 2022. The new facility has been operational for just over a month.
The new station comes in at about 19,000 square feet and cost around $11 million to build.
Jim Bloch is a freelance writer based in St. Clair, Michigan. Contact him at bloch.jim@gmail.com.
