HOBE SOUND — Thirty-year-old fire station #32 in Hobe Sound will soon have a new 5,000-square-foot, hurricane-proof addition that will add eight dorm rooms and two bathrooms, enabling the station to finally separate male and female firefighters.

The $520,000 addition is being installed by Royal Concrete Concepts of West Palm Beach, which manufactures pre-engineered concrete building systems that arrive virtually complete on the construction site. Workers simply connect the utilities, add the flooring and other touches and the new wing is nearly ready for occupancy.

“It takes just one day to set the units up because they arrive on site from our Okeechobee manufacturing plant 95 percent complete,” said Jeff Wisinski, the company’s head of business development.

The new addition will also add a hurricane-proof section to the station, which was originally built in 1979 as a volunteer station and had no sleeping areas or showers. Over the years, partitions were installed to add five co-ed sleeping areas, which began to put a strain on the station’s air-conditioning unit, according to Randall Saumier, the county’s chief of office of construction.

“After the new addition is installed, there’s going to be some renovation work inside [in the older section] to better utilize the space and open it back up so the air conditioning works better,” he said.

The new addition will come with its own air-conditioning units as well. Each new dormitory room will include a high-riser bunk bed, three lockers, and a corner desk. The addition will arrive on-site in six modules that will be put in place with a crane. Saumier says the biggest advantage is the lack of dozens of work crews potentially interrupting the fire station’s operation.

“You don’t have 15 plumbers and masons on-site,” he said. “It’s much easier to deal with.”

According to Wisinski, completion will take about three to four weeks, which is several months less than a typical addition would require. The concrete, polystyrene and reinforced steel modules could even help fire station #32 save on energy costs.

“Highly energy efficient, Royal Concrete modular units have been known to reduce heating and cooling costs by up to 20 percent,” he said.

The new addition is being financed by both the Fire Rescue Municipal Sales Tax Unit and property taxes. Martin County Fire Rescue District Chief Cliff Appe says the county’s choice of the novel construction method will perfectly meet the station’s needs.

“These dorms will provide a safe haven for us from hurricanes at the station,” he said. “The units seem very well built and will do the job more than adequately.”

By Donald Rodrigue

Tags: beach, business, chief, desk, development, fire, firefighter, firefighters, fires, hurricanes, jobs, Okeechobee, property, safe, sale, sales, taxes, utility, volunteer, volunteering, volunteers

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