Homes become fire stations for Carmel firefighters

Firefighters running into a house is a familiar sight.

Firefighters running out of a house, across a backyard and to a nearby elementary school parking lot to board their firetruck? Not so much so.

Such is the case, though, when the temporary fire station becomes the house down the street.

“They’ve been extremely pleasant,” new neighbor Skip Goodwin said of the firefighters from Station No. 44 of the Carmel Fire Department. “They’ve come over in the yard and offered to help me.”

Stations No. 43, at 106th Street and Keystone Avenue, and No. 44, at 131st Street and Gray Road, of the Carmel Fire Department are undergoing major remodels that have moved the firefighters from the stations into nearby homes. The locations have given the firefighters a chance to get more involved in the community while continuing to speedily serve their areas of the city.

Joel Heavner, the department’s public information officer, said renting a home for each temporary station was cheaper than, say, buying a house trailer.

Station 44 firefighters built a garage behind the house in the parking lot of Mohawk Trails Elementary School to house the truck and their gear.

A radio for alerts was put in the home’s living room, and a small gym was put in the garage. The firefighters sleep in twin beds in two of the bedrooms, while the remaining bedroom is used as an office.

Storage is limited, but the firefighters are enjoying the extra space the home provides, such as the backyard patio and TV room.

Station 44 Capt. John Moriarty said the neighbors have been welcoming, offering to bring cookies or lasagna for dinner. He said others have questioned whether the firefighters were living in the garage in the school parking lot, rather than the house on the hill.

“They thought we were living in that,” he said, pointing to the garage. “I was at the store, and this woman said to me the other day, ‘I thought you’d be awful hot in there.’”

Once the firefighters moved in a kindergarten teacher at the school got her class to send pictures and letters to the crew. They asked the firefighters to show them the firetruck. Moriarty said they obliged and even brought out Sparky, the fire station’s mascot.

Expansions and updates were needed at both stations, the firefighters said.

“The quarters that we had before, we had outgrown the station,” Moriarty said. “We opened it with two firefighters in 1981.”

Station 43’s remodel is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year, but Station 44 has been demolished and won’t be ready until spring or early summer of 2016.

Clay Township has provided most of the funding through a $6.5 million bond to demolish and rebuild Station 44, renovate Station 43 and build a maintainence and training facility in an agreement with the township board and the City of Carmel.

Station 44 houses 18 firefighters with six on each shift. Station 43 houses 12 firefighters with four on each shift.

Although firefighters from Station 44 say their temporary home is nice, they are eager for the new station. Moriarty said the crew made design suggestions.

The new station will be built up instead of out so it won’t take up more space on the lot. The bunk rooms will be bigger, and fire poles will be above the truck bays to get downstairs quickly. Officers will have their own lockers in the bunk rooms and more bathrooms and changing areas. There also will be a television room, a kitchen and a gym.

But the move-in date is still a year away. In the meantime, the firefighters will be getting to know their new neighbors, ready to help whenever needed.

As the firefighters wait, they will be getting to know their new neighbors, ready to help whenever needed.

“If we had a fire,” Goodwin said, “of course we probably would forget 911. Just run next door.”

Call Star reporter Olivia Lewis at (317) 444-6126. Follow her on Twitter: @TheWrittenPeace.