By Susan Braden
Journal Inquirer
MADISON, Conn. — Madison Hose Co. 1 has come a long way from its first firehouse, a single bay, brick-faced structure built in 1913 that is now a barber shop next to the current station.
Despite having four bays, the current firehouse is crammed to the gills with several firetrucks, other vehicles, two Zodiac boats, fire equipment, a small office area used for storage and only one bathroom and shower to serve 42 volunteers. A meeting room is upstairs.
The fire department plans to build an addition to the station at 655 Boston Post Road, demolishing two buildings next door at 677 Boston Road. The plans for the project, which is expected to cost at least $3.5 million, will be presented to the Planning and Zoning Commission at a public hearing March 6.
“We have stuff crammed in all over the place,” said Assistant Chief Gary Carroll.
The additional two bays to house fire vehicles and trucks would add more storage for the main station, which is 7,500 square feet and built in 1923. The new building will provide another 5,280 square feet of room.
The new addition would feature an emergency communications hub and a two-bay garage, storage area, three bathrooms and showers, plus additional office space.
Carroll said there currently isn’t a meeting place for them all to gather when dealing with emergencies, leaving them to have to call in from their homes or out of cramped spaces at the firehouse.
“We operate out of closets or houses, essentially,” Carroll said.
A meeting room in the Board of Education department at the Town Campus is used as a temporary emergency communications center during a storm event or emergency.
This becomes problematic when other town employees must use the office space that is housing emergency personnel and equipment on an ad hoc basis.
The new communications center in the firehouse will streamline the process when dealing with emergencies, such as snow squalls that “could cripple the town,” storms and major power outages, which may involve clearing downed trees from roads and dealing with live electrical wires, Carroll said.
During town emergencies, a dispatcher, the emergency management director, as well as members from Fire Hose Co. 1 and the North Madison Fire Department would man the center. Representatives from police, Madison Ambulance and town leadership would join the group, and when necessary, utility company staff would meet there as well to “triage the calls,” Carroll said.
“It would be a coordinated effort between all the services, instead of normally — the dispatchers would dispatch police, fire, ambulance, all for the same call,” he said.
The two fire departments respond to about 1,150 calls per year, he said.
Installing additional showers may seem like a small part of the project, but Carroll said they are crucial for the firefighters’ safety.
Having adequate showers in the fire headquarters is important for cancer prevention, so they can wash off smoke or chemicals from fires as soon as volunteers get back from a call, he said.
Clothing and skin, he said, gets “contaminated as well from smell or just seepage through” and showering helps, so “you’re not bringing anything home or into your car or anywhere outside the firehouse. It’s all staying contained.”
“That just gives our members the ability to do it in-house,” Carroll said. “It’s a fairly simple thing to be able to do that you should be able to do.”
Madison received a $2.5 million matching grant to help cover the cost with the federal government covering 75% of it and the town covering the remaining 25% of the grant, said Sam DeBurra, the town’s emergency management director. The town would also be responsible for finding the remaining $1 million or so.
In order to build the addition, town approvals are needed, plus two buildings owned by the fire department formerly rented by retail stores will need to be razed.
Two former tenants, Ciao Bella, a women’s clothing store, and Junk 2 Junque, an artisan gift shop, were able to relocate and stay downtown last August taking over the lease for Blue Moon, which had recently closed.
Ciao Bella also has a store in Fairfield.
Both shops are co-leasing the new space occupied by Blue Moon at 782 Boston Post Road, near the four-way intersection of Main Street, Bradley Road and Sampson Rock Drive.
Janice Briguglio, who owns Ciao Bella, which has been a mainstay in downtown for two decades, said it was lucky that they were able to get the space next door to R.J. Julia Booksellers on the other end of downtown.
“There was no place open in Madison,” she said.
But it has been an adjustment in their new location, she added.
She said they lost customers when they first moved but have since regained them.
There has been an upside to the move, Briguglio added.
“You’re meeting new people every day who’ve never been in the store because also when people go to R.J.'s,” she said. “So you’re kind of getting a different audience there.”
She worries that seasonal residents won’t be able to find her store though moving from the east to west side of the street.
“When it becomes summertime, and those summer people come ... are they going to find us?” She said. “Because they’re not going to find our building.”
She said she misses the building, too.
“You know, it’s sad because it’s like the last little picture of what Madison used to be,” she said.
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