Not only will Hutchinson’s newest fire station be ready on time, it will have a new way to ‘hose’ off for firefighters. Because of the higher incidence of lead, smoke and toxic fumes that firefighters face, the new fire station will have showers located on the outer rim of the building, so firefighters will not bring the contaminants inside the station after a call. There will also be a special washing machine, an extractor, that washes their bunker gear. “They take a shower, get out of their dirty clothes that they wear, and then they’ll put on hospital scrubs, and so they’ll be clean, and that’s when they will actually enter inside the fire station to put on a different uniform,” said Doug Hanen, the division chief of operations for HFD. “So they should never be taking their contaminants inside the fire station where they’re living.”
Source: Hutch News
